Oh, the Joy of Christmas!

Cressey's stash

HG's stash

Santa's signature in Kisses

The elves left 'goodbye' notes along the trail of Kisses

HG set her alarm for 6:30 and went to wake up Cressey. Then they stood at the top of the stairs and screamed at us until we got to the bottom. Cress was a little traumatized by that time! (she didn't like that her sister wouldn't let her go down)

All Cress asked for was a blue dragon (this pic) and a rocketship

HG is studying the turkey carving so she can take it on next

It was just the four of us, our parents, and Bubba for Christmas dinner. I put my phone down for a while, so these are the only pics I got of the meal part of the day. It was a wonderfully delicious and fun dinner around our kitchen table!

HG's favorite gifts were stilts, an Amazon Echo, and a scooter. She worked and worked on the stilts, and by the end of the day, she got several steps in a row. Of course, she had it mastered by the next day. Thank goodness for the pretty weather. The girls spent a lot of time outside with their new toys.

Cress finally gave it up for a nap. She can't resist her daddy's head rub!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a super beautiful, chill day. We started the day with some sisterly love reading Spiffer's books, and then we had lunch together at Babalu where HG taught Cress how to play tic tac toe. Mid afternoon, we headed to Byhalia for our annual candlelight service (surprise, Cress fell asleep on the way there and was groggy). Then, we went to Grandma's for our gift exchange time, and before we knew it, it was time to leave some reindeer food out for Rudolph and Oreos and boiled custard for Santa!

The girls played outside for the longest time. The weather was beautiful!

Tic tac toe lessons in effect

Despite HG not wanting anything to do with a picture with mama, she is pretty convincing, huh?

Grandma's

Thanks, Cress, for capturing me in my mama element of unboxing toys, surrounded by a sea of wrapping paper.

I spend hours making calendars for Spiffer & GD, Grandma, and Bubba each Christmas with pics from the year, and it warms my heart like nothing else to see each of them sit down immediately and pour over the year's worth of memories. Makes all the work worthwhile!

Aggressive reindeer food dumper

Look at that poser!

We ready!