.a book a day..

A fellow hybrid designer at ScrapMatters with me {simply j} posted on her blog how she wraps Christmas books to open each day. I LOVED the idea. While it was the 10th or so when I saw the post I decided to do it for the 12 days leading to Christmas.

Here are some pictures of the girls opening their books one day.

This is one of my FAVORITE Christmas books.

 
This day we had two books to open.

One thing I learned is they both want to open books each day ... but I don't have 50 Christmas stories so we may do the 12 days again next year just so each girl gets to open a book each day. I tried to have one a little more religious and the other a modern Santa and presents type of Christmas book.

Christmas after our house

 

After we open gifts and our house we go over to Nana and Papa Tom's house.

It is so fun that Rachel and Serenity are so close in age and that they get to see and play with each other. I wish that Rebecca and Bailey got to play as often as these two girls do.

This is going to become a very cherished photo one day.  I will be doing something fun with it for PawPaw as a birthday present - shhh!

Serenity wanted Little People for Christmas... We were getting ready to sell our Little People = Serenity getting a very nice collection of Little People and a great container to store them all in!

All the kids that were there that morning {I guess Cheyenne is no longer a kid!} The little boy is Landon, Shannon's son.

Serenity and Rachel... posing again!  So stinkin' cute!

We did stop at Papa and Nana Joyce's house after here, I just forgot to bring our camera in so I have no pictures of it. Cheyenne came with us so she could say hello on Christmas Day.  It was great that the girls got to see them - they love to get to see all their grandparents.

Christmas Morning Part 2

Stockings have now been opened ... now onto the presents!

 
Adam got this at a work elephant exchange - Rachel LOVES her new towel!

Mommy loves to get new games to play - this one {jenga} is so much fun but the kids always knock the tower over.

 
This is a solar mat that can charge our phones in an emergency.

Seriously this shoe was the best present ever and I got it for $5 on Amazon. Rebecca learned how to tie shoes in less than a day.

 
Rachel was so excited about the present that her sister got her! It was such a magical moment.

This is what she got... a little tiny dog that wags its tail.

 
Adam asked for a indoor helicopter - he has a big one for outside. Thankfully Amazon {gotta love that place} had a 70% off sale right after he told me that.  Got a $130 helicopter for $35!

This box had gloves for the family and included that big sled behind it for the snow.

And finally the last box... Rachel got her fake puppy dogs. Although they were taken away from her the next day for not wanting to pick them up - good this we haven't gotten a real puppy dog yet!

Christmas Morning - Part 1

I posted a couple pictures of Christmas Morning already you can find them HERE.

Adam woke numerous times that morning thinking the girls would be awake EARLY. Nope it wasn't until about 7:45 they came in. Then I had to brush my hair and we got dressed - learned the hard way once!

Rebecca was excited from the moment she saw it - rushing down the stairs to get to it!

 

Rachel on the other hand...

stopped at the landing and cried. She was so upset that she didn't get to OPEN it. Are you kidding me. I didn't even want to get it for her but since Rebecca had a "big" present that wouldn't be wrapped I felt like we should do something for Rachel as well. I found the quad for $30 online at WalMart and shipped right to the door for 99 cents. {I was a very popular stop this holiday season with FedEx and UPS!}

She finally gave in and came down - then sad that she couldn't ride it right away. It needed to charge more.

{this is what I got when I said show me your stocking}

Sorry for the slightly blurry photos. The camera recently is not focusing where we want - and darn it - in auto mode it should know where we want it to clear!

That is it for Christmas Morning Part One.  More to come!

Christmas Eve Night

Really... it doesn't come put together?

This one wouldn't have come together but I called WalMart (ordered it from WalMart.com - free ship to store) and asked if the bike person would do it and they did for FREE!

and... everything is now ready for a chaotic morning!

Santa filled the girls stockings {that is all he does at our house}

Yep we have a little tiny tree - our big tree was breaking as we put it together this year and I am a bit of a tree snob apparently as we couldn't find one I liked. Next year we may get the Costco one - just gotta grab it early.  If not we like our little tree on the end table!

Christmas Eve... after Nana's

Each year after going to Nana's we drive around and look at Christmas lights.  There are a few places that we make sure to go look at each year.  When we lived in Antioch there were many nights I would put the girls in the car with their PJs on and drive over and park and just watch in amazement.

Here are a couple of pictures that do NO justice to how great these houses are. I got together some food donations and toys and then forgot to bring them with us to drop off there {they have collection bins}.

You can tune your car radio and hear the music... and the lights are synced to the music!

We drove by many great houses these two (next to each other) were the only ones that I thought to take a picture or two of them. Just amazing!

Christmas from Mommom!

I don't even have all the pictures uploaded onto the computer of Christmas {I think I took to many}.

But I did have these of things that Mommom sent to us.

Seriously this hooded scarf is the best present ever. I am always freezing and this really keeps me warm!

Adam always LOVES the shirts that Mommom sends!

Christmas Eve will be coming soon - have to get it off the camera.  Then in order after that.