Happy New Year!

What a great Christmas we had!

On Christmas Eve, the girls are allowed to open one present. Every year until now, that present has been...matching pajamas. But this year, Mike was able to buy a used piano from the BCM, and spent weeks refinishing it without their knowing. So Christmas Eve afternoon, I took the girls to Dairy Queen for a treat (they just "happened" to fill up their marble jar that day!) and when we got home, I told them it was time to open their Christmas Eve present, and it was waiting in the living room. (Mike had some men from the church help him move it while we were at Dairy Queen, and even got boxes from Sears and wrapped it all up!) When they walked in and saw that HUGE box, they went nuts. It was awesome. Mike had to torture them, of course, and make them wait a little to open it...and then my memory card filled up! But here they are before they opened it:
And when they opened it and saw the piano...wow. I've never seen them so excited. They've been wanting one for years. It was so much fun.

That night we went to a Christmas Eve service at church (where they got to hold "real, lighted candles") then went home and had our own birthday party for Jesus, a tradition I grew up with. We fix a special dessert, put our nativity scene on the table, light our advent wreath and as many other candles as we can find, and Daddy reads the Christmas story out of Luke 2. Then we sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and enjoy!

The girls left cookies and milk for Santa before going to bed. Mikayla's going to love that picture one day!

Christmas morning we told the girls they had to stay in bed until 6:00. Well, my clock said 5:59 when they burst into our room, but we let it slide. :) They have to wait together until everybody who needs to potty has pottied, and Daddy turns on the tree lights and gets the camera ready, then we all go in to the tree together. This year they found a sign that said, "Look outside"...and found a trampoline in the backyard! They were surprised and thrilled again!! And yes, I realize they're all going to break their arms. I've been told. ;)

Then we looked in stockings and opened presents, and everyone was happy with everything.







I love watching Mikayla open her present from Jessica--she cracks me up!

The aftermath:

I especially loved my new set of dishes (Pfaltzgraff Summer Breeze) that I've been dreaming of for at least 2 years, maybe more!

After a yummy breakfast of Aunt Melody's Christmas Morning breakfast casserole, we loaded up the van and drove 3 hours to my Mom's. We rested and played that afternoon, waiting for cousins Whitney and Kennedi, then opened presents again! Gran and Mamaw went together to get Jessica and Mikayla their first brand new American Girl dolls...again, they had no idea and were thrilled!

Then we had a nice big Christmas dinner, although we sure missed those who weren't there. The next day we hit the after Christmas sales--got to see some snow flurries!--and the day after that we went to Silver Dollar City in Branson with Mark and Sally and Kennedi to see the lights and shows and ride some rides. It was VERY cold, and we drove through some beautiful scenes of snow-covered hills in the sunshine. I loved it. For family and friends who feel like family, here's a slide show of Christmas celebrations there (*Click on the pictures and then roll your mouse over each picture to see the captions*):