Christmas

Christmas Eve was spent at my mom's, just like every year before. She cooked a delicious feast of ham, broccoli casserole, green beans and twice baked potatoes. She even had appetizers of deviled eggs and prosciutto and mozzarella cheese -YUM!

After dinner we all watched "Fred Claus" - cute movie. When that was over we ate dessert; Flan, pastries and chocolate covered strawberries. After dessert, we opened presents. Of course, Gigi was flooded with gifts and she was really excited over every one of them. She was especially happy about her princess tent for her bed from her Mima and her Prince and Princess dolls that her Uncle B had sent to her from New York.

When we finally left it was midnight! Once we were home, we put Gigi straight to bed. This was easy to do since she had fallen asleep about 2 minutes after we got into the car. We then placed all of our gifts under the tree and set out the cookies and milk for Santa along with a note. Gigi had told me earlier in the day that she wanted me to write a note to Santa to leave next to his cookies. So, I did. At her instruction, the note read, " Dear Santa, Please leave me presents and I will be good all night. The End." Apparently she was going to be very well behaved while sleeping.

In the morning, we saw that Santa had come! He had eaten his cookies and drank the milk and left presents for Gigi under the tree. Luckily for us, since she went to sleep so late, she didn't wake until 9:45! So we were able to sleep in a bit which was nice. The gifts from Santa are the ones in front with no wrapping paper on them.

We took our time opening all of our gifts and emptying out our stockings. We were all very happy with what we had received. Gigi couldn't wait to start playing with her new toys. We lounged around for a few hours having fun with all our new things. She even received presents from New York from her Pipa! Look at the madness!!

Of course we were all wearing our matching pajamas. Remember those? I had written about them while I was still pregnant. It was one of the things I wanted to make sure to complete before J was born - sew our Christmas pj's. Well, I did finish them before he was born, but I actually ended up having to make a new pair of pants for him on Christmas eve. When I originally made them, I just guessed at his size and when I remembered to try them on it was already December 24 and they were too small. Anyway, we were all able to wear them.

Gigi and I had our shirts and pants match, while the guys wore red shirts (that were purchased) with the pants that I had made. I'm so glad I actually was able to make these! For two main reasons; 1. to purchase matching pajama's for the whole family would have cost a bit over $100. I only spent $20 on the fabric. 2. It was one of my goals that I made at the beginning of the year.

After a few hours, we finally got dressed and put our toys to the side. We then headed to my mother-in-law's house where the festivities continued. By the time we left there and loaded up the van, there was not an inch of space left empty!

We are still trying to find homes for all of our new gadgets and toys!