Christmas Recap

Okay, so Christmas was at least as good as I had hoped it would be. And probably a bit better.

Hmm. Yeah. Definitely better.

Christmas Eve was hectic at the beginning. Trying to get little people up and dressed while getting myself showered and dressed and at least resembling presentable. And meanwhile getting my husband up (he had worked late the night before) and getting him motivated to get himself showered and dressed. Let me tell you, it was hectic. Very hectic.

Finally sent the hubby and Evie on ahead of me and Elly. I had discovered that we were out of creamer the day before so someone needed to go by Walmart and since they were ready and Evie was anxious to get out of the house, poor Josh braved the Christmas Eve insanity. Evie, as usual, was UBER excited to be going to Walmart. She probably loved it more since it was jam packed with people.

Thirty minutes AFTER I was supposed to have left the house, Elly and I finally were loaded and in the car. Have you ever done your make up with a 10 month old on one hip trying to wrestle concealer, eye liner, mascara, toothbrush, etc. from your hands? The only thing that would distract her was my Christmas ornament earrings. Which she ripped from my ears multiple times. But if I sat her down she was crying and wailing and pulling on my pants leg. It was easier on my blood pressure to just deal with her on my hip.

So, finally in the car, finally on the way to my mom's house. We were supposed to do presents for the girls so Josh could participate and then we would have lunch. Josh had to be at work at noon. Which kinda stank. But the upside was he would be home before bedtime. So he could participate in the Christmas Eve bed time festivities.

Better late than never, we all arrived at my mom's house. Family was greeted and the girls quickly dove into opening presents. Evie was zealous. Perhaps overly so. Since she started trying to take other people's presents away and a couple of us had to be very firm with our "no." She was good at helping Elly with her presents. Though Elly was happier wrestling discarded paper and empty packaging than actually opening the rest of her stuff.

The girls got a lot of great stuff and us grown ups got some goodies as well. Josh said his goodbyes and the rest of the family sat down for lunch. Elly was entertaining. She makes eating a full-sensory experience. Like, rubbing it over her arms, sniffing it, kneading it, dropping it, brushing it into her hair, etc. as well as eating it. Evie wasn't able to sit still long enough to eat but she had some drive-by bites of ham, mashed potatoes and rolls.

After lunch was more play time for the little people. Extended family left and not long after the girls and I headed home. Getting both of them to wind down and take a nap was difficult. Very difficult. Involving some yelling and screaming and crying on the part of both parent and toddler. Finally, all little people were snoozing and I was too exhausted to do much. The holidays can really take it out of ya! But I managed to get the house cleaned back up and most of the toys and things put away. Prepared myself for round two with the girls.

After supper and playtime and baths, we put on Christmas pjs and watched all of our animated Christmas movies. The Grinch, Rudolph, Santa, Frosty and more. They were stoked when their Daddy came home and we read all the Christmas books we could find. We sat out cookies and milk for Santa, put Santa's magic key outside and Evie told Bernard (our elf) goodbye and off to bed they went.

I know in future years I will probably have to go to bed and get back up later, but for now we're safe putting Santa stuff out before we go to bed. So we brought the girls' big presents up, rearranged presents under the tree, filled their stockings and placed their Santa gifts at their doors. Then we headed to bed.

The next morning, I was the first person to wake up. I woke up a little after 7 and after lying in the bed for a little while I went ahead and got up and put cinnamon rolls in the oven. I got coffee ready and got my robe on and made sure everything was ready for breakfast. Then I went back to bed. At about a quarter til 8, Elly woke up and went and got her and brought her to bed with me. A short while later I heard Evie opening her door and jumped up to see her reaction to her stocking and her presents at her door.

At first she just stood there gaping. Then she leaned around the corner to make eye contact with me, a puzzled look on her face. I explained that was what Santa brought her and her face just lit up! She brought her present into the bed room and I got her stocking down for her. She tore into the wrapping paper and when she saw what it was her mouth just DROPPED. She was so surprised! Simply couldn't believe it!

There was the doll she had pined for!

It was Rapunzel!

Evie didn't even know what to think.

Then she was ecstatic!

"My Rapunzel doll!"

Let me tell you. It was totally worth all the aggravation of trying to get that doll.

Then she wanted to open Elly's present, but we stopped her. Not that Elly would have minded.

The girls then got everything out of their stockings. Once Elly found goldfish she was happy. But Santa gave them each a dinosaur, some books, a movie, a couple of balls, some candy, some clothes, goldfish, and some others things. Like nail polish and bath salts.

After breakfast we let them open the rest of their gifts. It was a lot of fun. Elly of course was happy after the first toy and just wanted to be left alone to play with paper and boxes. Evie on the other hand wanted to take presents away from everyone else.

All in all it was a great day! We had a lot of fun. The girls absolutely loved it. Best Christmas yet!