Christmas!!

The excitement in our family was running high on Christmas morning. Luckily the girls were so worn out from the day before that they slept until 7:45. I think that's a great time for children to wake up on Christmas. In fact, that is the latest I have ever slept on a Christmas morning. I really liked having stairs for the girls to come down. How cute are they!? As soon as she was done looking through her stocking, Adria ran to the window and started yelling, "Snow! Snow! Snow!" When she realized there wasn't any snow she turned to me with a look of betrayal and said, "It's not Christmas." She was very sad that we didn't get snow on Christmas.

Unfortunately, things didn't go smoothly all morning. While the girls were excited to open their gifts, they were a bit ungrateful. Especially once the music box was opened.

I told Ben the night before that there was something magical for me about a music box. What I didn't anticipate was that it would be the favorite toy. In fact, things got a little nasty between the girls. It's one of the few moments when they weren't best friends. Julia is still holding a grudge about it. We promised her that the New Year's Man would bring her one. The other favorite is definately the doll house from Grandma Stoddard (whom the girls refuse to call Grandma Stoddard and lovingly refer to as "Grandma Julie"). They have spent the most time with the doll house by far. The other presents seemed to be a bit of a letdown. In fact, Adria was so uninterested in the doll set we got her, that its still sitting in the box on the living room floor. We're taking it back today. All she wanted for Christmas was a rocking horse. Luckily Santa had one. She has dubbed it "Rainbow Dash" and rides it or drags it all around the house.

Ben got just a few small things, the way he likes it. I was able to surprise him which was fun. He is hard to surprise. For me, Ben made sure I was totally spoiled and got way more than any wife deserved. He is the best husband I can imagine and he made my Christmas totally wonderful.We had Matt and Ali and their girls over for Christmas lunch. Julia and Adria really love having cousins their own age that live so close. I don't think it would have felt nearly as much like Christmas without some family coming over to play.

We also got to talk to my brother in Chile using Skype which was so fun. I loved that we could see him and he could see us. What a miracle that we can have a face to face conversation with someone on the other side of the world.

All in all, I have to say that I really enjoyed our Christmas.