Christma's Day!

Mama:  "Lia, today is a very special day!  It is Christmas day!
Lia:  "Christma's Day, not Lia's."


This was the first Christmas experience we have had where Lia had some understanding of what was going to happen.  She knew that Santa was going to come and bring her presents under the tree and that it would happen when she was sleeping.  We all sat down together on Christmas Eve and read The Night Before Christmas with all the kids before bedtime.

We put the kids down for bed and then enjoyed a pretty fabulous, relaxed and fun "adult christmas" and we exchanged all the gifts that were between the adults.  This was a great decision because we could really take our time and appreciate each gift.

We pulled out all the kid's gifts after our adult celebration and got Todd's new Polar Express train set up around the tree.

We were all really excited to see Lia's reaction in the morning and she didn't disappoint.

GG got all the kids matching Christmas pj's and Todd put Lia's wrapped pj's in her room while she was sleeping so she would find it in the morning.  We heard her tearing the paper in the morning and when I went upstairs to get her I asked "Lia, what did Santa bring you?"  She said "PJs!  Silly Santa!"  So funny.

I brought her downstairs and she was confused, happy, and didn't really understand why everyone was staring at her and taking pictures.  Most of the pictures turned out a little dark b/c of the low lighting, but got this classic "Barney Fife face."

She ran to see the train and this quickly became the main attraction for the next 30 minutes or so.  Made for some great photo ops!

We had a yummy breakfast c/o Tyler and Elizabeth with a breakfast casserole and monkey bread.  After breakfast we got to it opening gifts.  It took Lia about 2 gifts to figure out that this is really fun.  The awesome thing about this little girl is that after each gift was open, she took time to look at it, appreciate it, hug it before throwing it on the floor and moving on.  She's two.  That is pretty great.

Julia appreciated each gift by eating it.  :)

Auntie got Erin and Halle the best gifts of the day - a rubber whisk and a sensory rattle bottle.  

Lia loved this little toy from Italy - a turtle that spins and plays music.  The top little red container holds pencils.

Todd and I got Julia a play tunnel for Christmas and it was perfect b/c she just started to crawl.

Lia quickly showed her how to use it

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, playing and getting Tyler's family packed up to leave the next morning.  We were so sad to see them go, but SO HAPPY we were able to spend so much time with them and enjoy Christmas together.  We worked hard and were able to get some great pictures with all four girls together.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!