Christmas 2012

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day came and went here with fewer pictures than I would have liked.  We were busy hosting Christmas Eve at our house for the Raley clan, and the prime rib in our oven took precedence over any good picture-taking, unfortunately.  However, we did come out of the evening with some pictures of the twins' with their favorite new toys --- highly anticipated stuffed Dumbos!  Annie requested this first, and of course Tessa had to have one as well.  I'm not sure who was more happy to open their present from Mop and Pop and discover their cute little Dumbo.  Both Dumbos are constant companions, and I love a good excuse to sing "Baby Mine" more often ;)

The rest of the night was wonderful as well.  The girls were over the moon to have the Cecchin cousins over, and our pew full of kids behaved themselves at mass, too.  The prime rib turned out perfect, thanks to Sara's professional prime rib skills, and our dining room just barely held everyone.  I think a bigger dining room is in our near future!

When the dust settled from Christmas Eve, we set out milk and cookies for Santa, and got five giddy little girls to bed.  Morning came too soon for one little Tessa, who had some iPad time while waiting for her sisters to wake up.

Annie was the last one up, with a little help from Daddy.

The girls humored me for a few sleepy, bedhead pictures before they went crazy opening presents!

This gift from Santa was another big hit!  Megan is obsessed with dolphins at the moment, and this was all she wanted for Christmas!

Bridget's favorite gift was definitely her new American Girl doll, Kit, from Mop and Pop.  She and Kit immediately had a fashion show with their matching nightgowns.  Later that night, she received another Kit "accessory," her little beagle puppy.  We just had to take a picture of all three of them with their matching freckles!  

Mary was smitten with her new activity walker, and fights for her turn with it daily.  Baby toys are always popular with the older girls.  Go figure!



All was not perfect on Christmas, though.  After a wonderfully relaxing morning with all of the girls happily playing with new toys, everyone took a nice long nap.  When everyone woke up, Tessa and Annie could barely breathe, and were suddenly super congested.  We decided I would stay home with them while Matt took the other three girls to Christmas dinner in Burlingame.  I missed seeing everyone that night, but these girls were in no shape to be out of the house.  They did get to eat grilled cheese sandwiches and watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, though.  It was a very cozy night for them (with their new slippers, new Dumbos and cuddly blankets) and me (with only two kids!).

We hope Christmas was as relaxing, joyful and full of wonder for everyone else, too!  Merry Christmas!

Silliness with Santa at SI

I can't blog about Christmas without documenting our annual Santa sighting at SI.  The girls have seen Santa at Daddy's school every year, and this year was no different.  Santa comes to see all of the faculty kids and grand kids, and the kid crowd is bigger than ever now!  Each December, this fun event is held in the school's theater, a wide open dark space, which explains why these pictures are so dark!  Santa arrived after the girls played with friends and cousins, and he had a gift for each of them.  This is usually the first gift of the season for the girls, and a fun kick-off for Christmas.

Things got a little crazy when Matt got the girls riding on the little handtrucks.  It was totally safe :/

But, it sure made the girls happy!  Avery merry beginning to Christmas for them :)

O, Christmas Tree

With or without a daddy recovering from pneumonia, we decided to get our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving...in the pouring rain...at a Home Depot with no roof in the garden area.  It wasn't the brightest thing we've ever done.  But, in our defense, we were all set to leave with five girls dressed and ready for a tree when we opened the front door and realized it was raining.  We had to just push through at that point!  On the bright side, we got a cute picture of four girls with their umbrellas :)  Matt was busy picking the first tree we could lay our hands on.  We weren't going to be picky in the pouring rain!

What entered our house a dripping mess transformed into a beautiful, decorated tree more than a few days later.  (Someday, many years from now, we will get and decorate our tree in a timely manner.  I'm not looking forward to those days since it will mean no little people interfering with our plans!)

With the arrival of our Christmas tree came the (slow) retrieval of all things Christmas from the crawlspace underneath the house.  Out came Santa hats and Christmas toys,

and eventually a knock on our door...

Henry Jolly, our own little Elf on the Shelf, returned, with a letter! 

And he brought the first toy of the season with him:  some more Christmas Little People toys to add to the girls' growing collection!

There has been a lot of Santa talk around our house, and more than a few letters.  I captured these two before the girls turned theirs in for a school wide mail-off to Santa.

Once all of our ornaments were on the tree, I realized that we have a picture of all of the girls in front of our tree from each year since Megan was a baby.  They're all in little ornament frames.  But, we didn't have a 2012 one yet.  So, we set about trying to get a good one.  Of course, baths, blow-drying and Christmas jammies had to happen first!  When everyone was ready, they were more than a little silly and not the most cooperative.  These are the best we could do...each perfect in their own way!

After I caught these cute pictures of Mary giggling to herself, I wanted to get a photo of each girl by herself in front of the tree.  But, while I was getting Annie, Tessa slid herself (and her little rocking chair) into the frame.  Annie was not amused :)

Finally, a picture all to herself!

Tessa got a taste of her own medicine when Mary sidled into her picture. What a smart baby she is!  She totally understands how to bug her sisters!!

We got Mary out of the way and managed to get Tessa and Bridget alone:

And then Megan and Santa posed together.  Afterwards, we had another photo bomb from Annie :)

Crazy little girls!