Happiness is Having Twins: Christmas 2014!

Merry Christmas Eve!

After nap, we headed over to Yia-Yia’s house for our Christmas Eve party. There were a lot of people and it was a lot of fun! My mom throws great parties and cooks delicious food! Our favorites are her Italian sausage and meatballs. They’re baked in her homemade pasta sauce and delicious on a roll. There were quite a few kids because Ted’s grandkids came too. His daughter’s boyfriend’s daughter was so sweet with the girls! She said, “Violet is just like Cindy Lou Who!” which is so funny because we say that all the time. The girls even point and say, “Violet!” when we watch the cartoon Grinch. The girls loved looking at all of the beautiful presents under my mom’s little tree. Before we knew it, it was time to go! The girls were excited about Santa coming tonight!

Shiny presents! Which ones are ours??

Andrea made a delicious chocolate cake!

Merry Christmas!

Santa came! And it snowed!! The girls must have been good this year! Santa brought new coats, mittens, shoes, coloring books and crayons in a train box, and the big gift was train tracks with circus trains and two Thomas trains! They got a bunch of smaller stuff on their stockings like Thomas socks, maracas and whistles for their music set, “canny” m&m’s in a candy cane, and a few other things. Santa found these cute owl and bird bags and put a Burts Bees chapstick inside. They always want mama’s so I’m glad they have their own now! Lily says, “Lip, Mama, lip,” when she wants some. We gave the girls Magformers, a peg puzzle block train, a multi-sided puzzle, and a little fishing game! Violet loves the fishing game! We knew she would. They opened the presents from Mary and Val, too. They gave Violet the mouse from If you Give a Mouse a Cookie with the book attached and Lily got the bear from Brown Bear, Brown Bear with the book attached. The books are soft, made of fabric. They are so cute! They’ll love snuggling with those! Mary knows them well!

By 8:30 we were on our way to my dad’s house! We decided to make it a jammy day and not get the girls dressed. We just didn’t have time! We are happy we have four-wheel drive. When we got to my dad’s street, Grandpa and Neil were stuck in the snow. Matt was trying to help and my dad came out too. My dad started driving his car and almost ran over Ryan! He fell and bruised his hip pretty badly. Eventually we all made it inside! The girls and Addy helped pass out all the presents. We opened a few presents and then went in to eat breakfast. Mindy set the table beautifully! We have our traditional Christmas morning breakfast of frittata and Mindy bought pastries from Gourmandise. We had mimosas made with hand squeezed orange juice! Mindy is amazing!! After that we went back to the living room to finish opening presents. The girls made a haul, of course! They got a mini-trampoline and sit and spin thing. I gave everyone their blankets! I had everyone open them at the same time and they loved them! Yay! Mindy liked her scarf I made too.

Back at home, my mom came over and they got to open more presents!! They got little leapfrog ABC laptop things and velvet track suits. My mom loved her blanket! She wasn’t feeling well, so they didn’t stay too long.

After lunch they were READY for a nap!!! We needed one too! What a morning! It’s been so fun and the girls have loved every minute of it.

Last year, we didn’t really plan a nice dinner for Christmas day. We didn’t make that mistake again! We brined a turkey the day before and put it in the oven in the afternoon. We had asparagus, bread, and gravy with our turkey. It was delicious! We hope to do the same every year. I love new traditions!

One last Christmas gift for the girls, we put their toddler rails on their cribs! We were really nervous, but it went very smoothly! They don’t nap in cribs at Mary’s anymore, so they were used to it! When we went back in to check on them, they were sleeping so peacefully, but in awkward positions! Violet laid sideways with her head against Elmo, right on the edge of the toddler rail. Her feet were sticking out the rails on the other side! Lily was laying on top of all of her blankets. First night was a success! We hope naptimes go just as well!