It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

That used to be (and still is, actually) my favorite song to listen to at Christmas when I was a kid. My dad had an Andy Williams Christmas record (yes, I said record--I know I'm old) and we used to love to listen to it non-stop at Christmastime. To this day when I hear it, I still think of Christmases when I was young and we would dance around the house singing "It's the most wonderful time.....................of the year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good times. Anyway, we have had a fun past two days celebrating this most wonderful time of year. On Christmas Eve we went to Maw Maw and Paw Paw's house for some delicious grilled steaks, chicken, and sausage, and of course some yummy desserts to finish off the Christmas feast. We then visited, laughed, had a special visit from Santa himself, sang Christmas carols, laughed some more, and opened some presents. Unfortunately, somehow all of my pictures from all of the fun we had (and all of my pictures from the last 6 months too!) somehow were mysteriously deleted from my memory card. I was and still am seriously bummed out about it, so I can't think about it right now. After all of the festivities there, it was time to head home to get ready for the big visit from Ole' Saint Nick. When we got home, the girls put reindeer dust (aka glitter) and reindeer food (aka oatmeal) out on the driveway.



The reindeer dust is to help the reindeer spot our house easier and the reindeer food is so they can have a little snack while Santa is inside delivering the presents.



This is one of their favorite things to do, and they get so excited about it. It's so fun to watch them.



We of course had to leave out some milk and cookies for Santa, and a few carrots for the reindeer, since carrots are their favorite snack.



Looks like Santa and the reindeer enjoyed the treats. And Santa even left the girls a letter.



Santa always sets out the girls presents with their stockings. Up until this year, the girls have always slept until around 6:30 or 7am. I knew it would happen at some point, but I really didn't think it would be this year that they woke up before the crack of dawn--about 4am to be exact. We tried to get them to go back to sleep, but it just wasn't happening. And honestly, I wasn't sleeping well anyway, and was pretty excited for them to see what Santa had brought. So we all got up and opened presents at an insane hour this morning. And it was so much fun!



Katie before opening presents.



After opening presents.



Sarah before opening her presents.



Sarah after opening her presents. Can you tell she was getting tired of all the pictures?



*Some of their favorites gifts
They were pretty excited about the Lil' Kinz that Santa stuffed in their stockings, since the ones they got last Christmas are about to expire.



They both loved their American girl dolls. Katie opened hers first and said, "She looks like me!" It took her a few hours to figure out a name for her, but she finally decided on Caroline. Sarah took one look at hers and immediately said, "Her name is Elisabeth." I love both of the names that they picked out for their dolls.



Both of my girls LOVE blankets, so I made both of them blankets for their beds out of this cute pink Carolina fleece that I found at a great price. I put pink satin on the back. And since I had some extra fleece and satin, Aaron suggested that I make matching ones for their dolls. He has such great ideas. I thought they all turned out really cute, and the girls and the dolls loved them.



Here's Katie and Caroline with their matching nightgowns, which they love! And I do too!



And here's Sarah and Elisabeth in their matching nightgowns, which they love too! They all changed into their nightgowns soon after opening them and stayed in them until almost noon. I think they are so adorable!



But the most favorite gift that Santa left was the trampoline! They are having so much fun with it. Here they are with Daddy playing 'Crack the Egg'. We've had a fabulous Christmas and hope you all have too!