Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a wonderful and merry Christmas today! It's always fun to celebrate the birth of Christ. We had a great day, so I thought I would tell you about it.

First, we received the wonderful gift of rest from our girls. We put Lily to bed at about 7:30 last night (a little early but necessary given her lack of sleep recently), and she stayed in bed until 7:25 this morning; yea! Amelia went to sleep about 11:45 last night; she was still sound asleep when I woke her up at 7:45 this morning to eat; yea again! It's amazing how much we needed that sleep and how good we felt afterwards. It was awesome! It gives us hope that someday (hopefully soon) we will once again get sleep.

Ryan met Lily as she was coming out of her room towards ours this morning. She looked to see if Santa had eaten the cookies and milk she and Ryan made for him last night (he had), and she noted that the stockings were full. Then she came in to our room, said "Hi Mommy! Cart-ta-toons?" as she does every morning. We watched Curious George for a few minutes and then I went to feed Amelia while she and Ryan watched Mickey Mouse. After Amelia was fed, the four of us went out to see the crumbs Santa had left and check out the toys he left for the girls. Lily was very excited to see she had received a ride-on Mickey Mouse airplane and a new teddy bear. She just wanted to ride on that airplane! It was great to watch Christmas through a 2-year-old's eyes. Amelia received a shape-sorter toy and one of those toys with the beads on the wire like you see at pediatricians' offices. At the moment, I don't think she is very excited about them, but one day she will like them! We finally convinced Lily to look at the stockings that Santa had filled for us all; she received some new paintbooks and a little Goofy doll while Amelia received some car seat toys, books and a snuggly blanket.

After seeing what Santa had left as "prizes" (as Lily still likes to call surprises), we opened our gifts from one another which was lots of fun. Lily wanted to help open everyone's gifts. When she would open one for Amelia, she would look at it and then take it over to Amelia who was sitting in her bouncy seat and would put it on her feet. It was pretty sweet to watch. Several of the gifts for Amelia were hand-me-down toys from when Lily was about that age. It was funny because Lily seemed to like those toys (like Randolph the green-nosed reindeer rattle that she played with all the time) though she obviously didn't remember them. She seemed pretty bored with the gifts that Ryan and I received from each other though we really like them (especially my gift certificate for a massage at Spa Sydell - thank you!!!).

After opening all the presents, we checked to make sure Rudolph had enjoyed the bowl of water we had set out for him which he had. We finished baking the breakfast casserole, got dressed and headed over to my brother's house to celebrate with my family. Christmas brunch is one of our favorite meals of the year; we start talking about how we are looking forward to it the day after Thanksgiving. I brought the apple-cranberry casserole, Wayne makes the egg and sausage casserole, Mom brings garlic-cheese grits and biscuits while Meme makes gravy for the biscuits, sausage, country ham and bacon (we like meat in our family!). It is absolutely DELICIOUS! Lily was occupied playing with McKayla and Molly's toys so she didn't eat much other than the country ham, but she had a lot of fun.

After enjoying breakfast, Meme, Randy and Georgia left to visit some of our extended family while the rest of us opened more presents. Lily was thrilled to get a rocking horse from Granna and Papa; she absolutely loved it and refused to share it with Molly (she is usually pretty good about sharing). She also loved the little drawing lap table that Wayne and Dianne gave her. Again, she helped open the presents for Amelia, Ryan and me; she is really getting the hang of ripping wrapping paper off! It was a great time spent with family.

We came home and both girls took nice long naps which allowed Ryan and me to rest and take naps too; we're really enjoying this sleep-thing! After we all woke up, we played with the new toys, read books and simply enjoyed our time together. Mom and Dad came over to visit and see what Santa brought the girls which was nice. We ate some dinner, gave Lily a bath (she enjoyed her new bath toys) and put her to bed. Ryan and I are watching "Get Smart" which is pretty funny; hopefully Amelia will go to bed soon and get another good night's sleep.

What a wonderful day! I will put up some pictures very soon so you can see the fun we had. I hope your day was as great as ours!