Christmas Day

Christmas morning was so fun having kids old enough to get excited about it.  We had them both coe down the stairs at the same time and they both knew exactly which big Santa gift was theirs.  We opened presents and then had our traditional big brunch with a breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls, fruit, juice, and I'm sure other things that I can't remember.  One of my favorite Christmas traditions.  We then just spent the day relaxing at home, playing with the new things, etc.  My grandpa and Becky stopped by for a few minutes to see what the girls got for presents before heading up to Cleveland again.  It was a great day!  And then, my mom and dad started getting sick and stayed that way the rest of the trip. :(

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was such a great night, filled with family and friends!  My dad flew in super early the morning of Christmas Eve.  Later that evening, we were joined by my Grandpa and Becky, Aunt Wanda and Uncle Same, Lisa and Brandon with their girls, and our friends, the Neeley's came just for dinner and the nativity at the last minute because they didn't have any family around this year!

I would say that we had everything pretty well planned out and ready for the night and it all went as smoothly as we had hoped.  We had too many people to feed in just our kitchen, so we set up some tables and chairs downstairs and had our Christmas lights on down there, along with some pretty Christmas music playing on Ryan's bluetooth speaker to help make it feel not so basement-y.  We had ham, cheesy potatoes, rolls, banana cherry jello, green beans, and an assortment of drinks for dinner.  After dinner, we all went upstairs and acted out the nativity while my dad read it from the scriptures.  Following that, we had our annual talent show, followed by singing Christmas carols and hymns with just tea lights and Christmas lights on.  We ended the night by opening Christmas Eve pajamas and a few other gifts from family members that were not going to be there on Christmas morning.

The "Wise Men." ;)

Claire just stood up on this stool and we all started cheering for her and clapping and she loved the attention. Haha!

Lucy's talent: Gymnastics!  She was so excited to do this for everyone and knew just what to do when it was her turn.  Somersaults and handstands!

 Ryan's talent: juggling! 

 My grandpa recited a version of "Twas the night before Christmas" and it was great!

 The only pic we got of singing with candles, so this will have to do.

Christmas eve jammies!

 Claire loves snuggling with this super soft Frozen blanket.

Holding the baby and colored baths

Lucy loves holding Claire and always asks "I hold Claire? Please, mom?"  And then she will run over to the couch, sit next to a pillow, and hold her arms out, waiting for me to put Claire there.  The funny thing though is that Claire is getting so big these days that it looks like a toddler holding another toddler like a baby! Ha!  But they both love each other's attention and think it's great when Lucy holds Claire (at least for a couple of minutes until the novelty wears off each time).

 Lucy got some tablet things from a friend for Christmas that make the water change colors.  This night it was blue.  They were so strange... I felt like everything was going to be dyed blue from this, but it wasn't, and when you would get the water on your hand or somewhere, just a little bit, it didn't even look colored.  The girls thought it was the coolest thing!

Big girl bed

We switched Lucy from her crib-converted-to-toddler-bed to a twin bed over Christmas break.  I got a great deal on a cute white frame off of Craigslist and then we bought a cheap bed set at Target because I assumed she would want something cheesy/little kidish that we wouldn't necessarily keep forever and ever.  She loves it!  BUT, I'm going to go ahead and write down how AWFUL the transition was for the future when I can't actually remember the details and I'm wondering why our next ones are so bad for so long. ha!  You forget these details sometimes!  She loved her big girl bed right away, but for a girl who does NOT like change at all even in the least bit, she was extremely anxious about it all at nights and wanted her door wide open, noise machine off, and every light upstairs on.  At first, I said no to all three of those demands, but one day during her nap, she got up herself and turned off the noise, opened the door, and turned lights on and slept like a champ.  So we tried it at night and she did SO much better!  So I gave in to those, but she was still freaking out every time I had to put her in bed and getting up out of bed constantly for one to two hours straight.  Basically, for three straight weeks I would constantly pick her up, put her back in her bed without saying a word, and leaving, all the while she was screaming and crying and usually following me right back out of her room.  But I stuck to it and would turn right around and quietly put her back.  I am happy to say that she is now much better and back to going down without too many problems.  Without having the noise machine on though, she has woken up WAY too early many times just from hearing Ryan get up and get ready for work in the mornings.  Oh well though... such is life.  I'm just glad that we are back to sleeping somewhat normal again.  It was rough but had to be done.

Lucy sleeps kind of crazy a lot, and this particular night made me smile as I walked by her door and saw her little feet crossed while she was out cold.