Twas the Night Before and the Day of...

Christmas was definitely a busy season but filled with lots of joy, and lots of sweet memories were made in the 24 hrs that spanned from Christmas Eve until Christmas Evening.   We drove up to DE late morning on the 24th and back later that evening.  As usual, it was an awesome day at my Too-dad & Mary Catherine's and the entire family was able to make it this year- 23 people, including six kiddos 6 and under!  We are so grateful for this dear tradition and love seeing how much our girls love it, too.  We got home late and woke up fairly early Christmas morning, but it was so fun to get ready for the girls' very first leisurely Christmas morning in our very first home. 

Lilee  was so helpful getting the stocking stuffers ready!

Quality time with Buxtehude the cat under Too-dad's watchful eye...

Then again with Pop-Pop after getting in her fancy dress.

Cruising around the neighborhood!

The "cousins" have arrived!


Let the fun begin...

What a chorus!

What a crew!
So grateful for this bunch :)

More pics from Christmas Eve:

Thankfully the girls didn't wake up too early on Christmas morning, giving enough time to get some breakfast out and set the stage.  We had Maelee's new life-sized stuffed dalmation waiting for her and a new keyboard (new to us at least, thanks to a very generous friend of a friend who wanted to give it away!) set up with a bow on it.  It was a fun morning with lots of giddiness!

First things first-

reflecting on the true gift of Christmas!

Happy girls!

Maelee could hardly contain herself ripping into her new
"American Doll" (or what we considers it...)- May Lee. :)

And Lilee was equally thrilled to get her new bath baby doll!

We loved our sweet snowman hand print and poem from Maelee :)

Doc Maelee

Hooray for books!

One happy girl with her new pal, Lucy.

Another happy girl after getting to try out the whipped cream for the black bottom pie later!


More pics from Christmas morning:

The girls enjoyed a lazy morning and afternoon enjoying their new gifts before we headed over to Nana & Pop-Pop's for the third celebration.  It was such a treat to have my brother visiting and spend Christmas with him.  The girls love his sense of humor and continue to grow closer to him despite the distance through crazy but fun video chats!  It's pretty awesome to see him in person though :)

Someone's ready for more presents!

The excitement begins...

Yum!!!

Another SWEET night!

More pics from Christmas evening:

  
 



The day after, basking in the new toys and soaking up final times
with Uncle Dan before his trip back to Japan.

Lilee's expression cracks me up- she's usually more entertained than annoyed by the cat!

The Christmas season always seems to go by in a flash but always contains so many special memories. We are grateful for every one of them and especially grateful for the reason we celebrate it all!