Christmas Weekend

Sunday morning snow!!  Actually, more likely sleet with a few snow flurries, but whatever it was, we were so excited to watch it falling from the sky!  You can see it on the table behind the girls.

Sunday afternoon, we visited Tim's grandmother in the nursing home.  She's an amazing woman and the girls enjoyed their visit.  (Well, up until an aide came in to adjust something on Mamaw's wheelchair and Abby said "What is that lady doing to my mamaw??!!")

Today, I was off work, so we were extra lazy.  Abby decided she wanted to stay in her pj's all day -- so she did, with bed-head to match.  She took them off only to bathe and put on fresh jammies this evening!  We spent the morning enjoying Christmas gifts and the girls played make-believe most of the afternoon.  Abby comes up with her own scenarios now.  Today, she declared that she was "Mrs. Dorothy" and Ellie was Lylah (a baby in the church nursery).  She took good care of  "Lylah".  Ellie liked getting to be the baby, for once!
  Ellie finished her Christmas thank you's this afternoon.  She wouldn't let me help her, she wanted to compose them by herself, and I loved reading what she wrote in each one.  They were all so thoughtful!

Perkins Family Christmas

After opening Santa gifts at our house, we dressed and headed over to Granna & Papa's for a Perkins Family Christmas celebration.  Here's Abby playing "Santa" with the gifts.

Uncle Jeff with his party face on.  Ha ha.

Abby loved her new baby doll cradle.  She spotted it right away under the tree and sweetly said "Is this for me, Granna?"

Ellie-Bellie!

Aunt Sarah

Papa!

Poor Granna wasn't feeling 100% but she still hosted a lovely celebration!  Thank you, Granna, for the delicious meal!

Opening Uncle Randy's fun gifts!

Ellie's new fancy tea cart!  It's lovely!  She was such a great helper, serving our salads and dessert with her new toy. 



Post-unwrapping relaxing -- with new grown up toys!



Granna's beautiful table! 

Snuggled in with Aunt Sarah after lunch. 
Thank you, Granna and Papa for the delightful day and special gifts!

Santa!

Santa came!!  Hooray!!  Much to our surprise, Ellie & Abby slept in Christmas morning.  We practically had to wake them up to see what Santa brought.  But once they were fully awake, they were soooo excited to see their presents!

When people would ask Abby what Santa was bringing her, she'd always reply, "A pink present."  So Santa made sure to wrap all Abby's gifts in pink paper.  
Santa brought both girls gifts of clothes, books, games and art supplies.

Checking out her new girly stick-horse.

Ellie's new ipod speaker from Santa to go with the new ipod Mommy & Daddy gave her.  Her first thought when she opened the ipod was about Abby -- she wanted to give Abby her old one.  How sweet was that?

Ellie's two Santa wish list items all season:  An American Girl doll and a hug from Mrs. Cox (her teacher).  Here's Ellie with her new doll and Mrs. Cox gave Ellie lots of sweet Christmas hugs at church on Christmas eve! 

Abby with her talking personalized Elmo phone.  It says her name and leaves her voice mails.  Pretty funny. At first she was totally freaked out when she heard him say Abby. Now she likes it and says "he said my name!" everytime it says Abby!

Getting ready for Santa!



After church, we each opened one gift -- new Christmas pajamas for everyone, including Ellie & Abby's Bitty Babies!  Warm and cozy for Christmas!



(photo by Ellie!)

Daddy & his sweet girls!

My babies!

(Photo by Abby!)

The girls fed Santa's reindeer with special food they made earlier this month.   The food had sparkles in it to help guide the reindeer to our home.

Before heading off to dreamland, Ellie wrote Santa a sweet note.  I'm sure he LOVED it when arrived at our house!

He ate almost all his cookies! 

Christmas Eve Candlelight Service

On Christmas Eve, we attended our church's candlelight service.  It was so beautiful!  The girls got to wear their gorgeous Christmas dresses (Thank you, Granna & Papa!!).

Someone was very excited!

Sara Rodgers & Hampton's Sugarplum Spectacular!

The other night, we attended Sara Rodgers & Hampton's 2nd Annual Sugarplum Spectacular at their Honey's home.  It was a beautiful party and the girls had a lovely time!

Delicious treats!

Look at the cookies -- they looked like real snowflakes!

Abby and her buddy, Hank Hewitt.  Abby calls him "Pink" -- it started out as "Baby Bank" but evolved into "Pink".

In a flurry of snowflakes, Santa arrived in his Jeep sleigh! 

Greeting the children

James & Abby stuck close to their daddies during Santa's arrival.

Olivia and Ellie (with a mouth full of snowflake cookie!)

Quiet moment with Santa

After seeing that Ellie received a candy cane from Santa, Abby thought she wanted to talk to Santa.  But she quickly decided she wasn't into him this year.  Poor baby!

Fancy cookies always help tears dry quickly!

Ellie & Abby with their precious hostess.  Thank you for the special evening, Sara Rodgers!

Quinn, Katy & Ellie