Christmas 2013

I'm going to try not to make my Christmas post too long, but we really did have a great Christmas.  The girls don't get the anticipation of Christmas yet, which is actually really nice, although it will be fun when they do as well.  But we did a lot of little traditions that I hope to do every year.  We watched 'Small One', looked at Christmas lights, made cookies for Santa, etc.  It was fun to see the girls experience things for the first time and start to realize what is going on.  

In fact I think one of their favorite parts of Christmas this year was our Christmas tree.  Every morning when we would get downstairs we would turn just the tree lights on and pretty soon that is what they would ask for each morning before we even got downstairs.  The day the tree got put away I could see Siena looking over at the bare spot and so I asked her where the Christmas tree was and she said 'Where is it?  I find it!'  It was cute.

Christmas Eve day we met up with Shane's mom and sister for lunch.  That night we went over to my parents and had a big turkey dinner, acted out the nativity and of course opened our PJ presents.  That was nice cuz then we got them all ready for bed before leaving my parents house.

Christmas morning was fun.  When I told the girls that Santa had come Aria looked a little afraid (she's kind of traumatized I think) but when I told her he just left the presents and isn't actually here she was fine with that.  Santa gave them cash registers, coloring books, Mickey slippers, lots of Minnie and Mickey stuff. Jaron got some new toys and some new clothes.  After feeding Jaron and making breakfast we opened up our presents...all but one.  The girls played with their toys and then after Jaron went down for his morning nap we had them open up their last present and we gave the girls each a small android tablet.  I debated getting them this but we have strict rules about when, where, and how long they can play with it and it's only loaded with educational games for now.  They love it and often ask for their tablet. So we spent the rest of the morning hanging out and just relaxing.

That afternoon we went back to my parents where we opened more presents for us and for the kids.  Then later that night we made our annual stop at Shane's brothers house to say hello to his family for a while.  It's always fun that we can see both sides of the family during Christmas.