Christmas Festivities

We had a lot of fun over the Christmas break and we were SUPER busy trying to fit everything in!! We of course had to bake...a couple times. Then we took our goodies to some lucky friends house and went caroling AND drove around to look at Christmas lights.  It was a long night, but the girls and us loved every minute of it!

Christmas Eve came and we made iced "doughnuts" for the elves. 

A lot of them did not make it to the Elves.  Quality Control got a little carried away in the taste testing department.  Elise was going CRAZY for them...but I guess they were her size!  hehe!

The girls had a blast making them though!

Then Christmas Eve night came and the girls got to open their Christmas pajamas.

I just love this pic of the big sisters trying to hold  Elise's PJ's up to her!!  And FYI, if there are EVER snapshots of Audrey on this blog, she will either be wearing this outfit or her black leotard with a princess skirt.  She pretty much lives in either of those two outfits while at home! :)

All three struttin' their Christmas PJ's!

We then turned on the Nativity story so we can remember what this Season is REALLY about!!  It's amazing how much the girls understand about the story!!  I'd like to start the tradition of reading it in the Scriptures on Christmas Eve once the girls get old enough!

 Then we put out Santa's/Elve's cookies out and some Eggnog near the stocking so he wouldn't get hungry!!

Santa Came!!!! 

Isn't it a little ridiculous??  I know, it's supposed to be fun and exciting, but I can't help but feel a little gluttonous when I look at this picture.  But, you gotta LOVE grandparents (and Aunts and Uncles)!!  They all sure spoil their grand kids!! And I wouldn't have it any other way! :)

Audrey woke up first and peeked in the dark room and immediately commented on the dollhouse. She was so excited.  She LOVES dollhouses!  Once she woke Nora up, they jumped right in opening their presents.  But, we calmed them down and proceeded in an orderly fashion! LOL! :)

Nora was so excited to get a new fairy.  That is what she's been asking from Santa (and us).  She lost her other one this summer while traveling to California.  She said this one was EVEN better than the other one.  Good job Santa!!

Grandpa played the Santa role and passed out gifts.  He also got his favorite treat (chocolate covered orange sticks)  YUMM! :)

I got pots and pans...YAY!!  I really did mention to Mom that I wanted some and she rolled with it!!  They are really cute and pretty good pans.  They are not dish washer safe, which is a TOTAL bummer, but I'll get over it! :)  Wade also got me an external hardrive for my MAC.  Apparently it's SO popular that it's still on backorder through Amazon!!  Oh well, I'll get it someday!!

We also got a Wii!!  The girls have had a BLAST with it! Audrey's Favorite game is a Dora snow princess game!  We all LOVE just dance, well, scratch that, Audrey doesn't like it bc Nora always wins!  Gotta Love 3 year olds!

Nora finally got to open her present to Jesus!!  It almost got lost in the midst of all the bigger gifts and wrapping paper, but it was by far the most meaningful!

She's been SOOOOOO excited for us to open it.  I thought her gift to Him was just perfect.  She's just a thoughtful little girl.  She made this during Sunday school, so I'll have to ask her teacher if she came up with it all on her own!

The Big girls got a Big Doll house and Elise got a little one to play on her own.  They all couldn't be happier with all their gifts. 

After all the gifts were opened and played with we had our YUMMY and traditional spiced apple pancakes.  Christmas morning just wouldn't' be the same without them!!

Later that afternoon we took some little gifts to one of the local nursing homes!!  The girls just LOVE going there!!

We assigned the girls questions to ask the tenants to initiate a conversation with them.  Audrey's Question was " What is your name?" and Nora's question was, "How is your Christmas?".  Well, we didn't take into consideration that most of the tenants might be hearing impaired.  This is how a couple conversations went:

Tenant: oh what pretty little girls

Audrey: What's your name?

Tenant: you girls are so pretty.

Audrey: What's your name? ( a little louder)

Tenant: is this for me?

Audrey: What's your name? ( even louder with a bit of an attitude)

Tenant: "Pause"

Audrey:  "Mommy, Why he not telling me his name?" (With TOTAL attitude)

Ahhhhhh....But it's the thought that counts, right??

It was hard to find tenants in their room, some were asleep, but others were out visiting with family.  But we were able to find a couple who were there alone.  So sweet to see how excited they were AND the girls were to see each other!!

We then went home and cooked, cooked, cooked and then had dinner with some GREAT friends and GREAT conversation!! Fun was had by all!!Hope you all had aWonderful Christmas as well!!

I took some fun pics during Christmas that I posted on my Photography blog.  You can check them out here if you want to.  Just me being creative as us photogs do.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but I posted some of my favs there! :)