Christmas day and a little after...

Christmas morning was fun for us this year. Tori is getting what Christmas is a little bit. She understood Santa a little, but didn't really get that he would leave presents under the tree. So when she got up and found presents under the tree she was quite impressed! Tori & Brooke both got Princess dolls with outfits to change them into and a Strawberry Shortcake house complete with accessories from Santa (and some of his helpers...wink wink). Tori & Brooke loved opening all of their presents, but frequently got side tracked with all of the fun new things to play with. Among their gifts were coloring books, crayons, markers, Thomas the train, hot wheel cars, puzzles and a flashlight (that do amazingly cool things like light up like light sabers) for each of them ! Thanks to all of the various Aunties, Uncles and cousins for the plenteous gifts! They will be put to good use!

Needless to say, we need to downsize our toy collection! I am not kidding, I think that I could single handedly run a daycare for 12 children with all of these toys! So I let the girls play while I decided on an organization method and wished for a play room. Maybe when all the girls are out of their cribs/toddler beds, I will cram them all into one room and then they will have a play room. We LOVE the animal masks...and we had to try them all on...I think that I am quite the striking zebra. On to Jason and I...well...I got some amazing slipper boot sock deals from my sister that are super comfy and stylish, a kindle cover from Jason and a purple scarf from the girls. Jason got some games from me, a sweater hand picked by the girls from the girls and some money (with which he purchased two new Wii games: Mario vs Sonic Winter Olympics and Mario Galaxy). All in all...we were spoiled.

Katelyn decided to sleep in... so she was late with all of the opening presents thing, and only two presents lasted her sisters' wrath... she got two new play things to go on her various hanging toy holders...one is this fantastically pink pig that plays music (picked out by Livy) and this vibrating frog (picked out by Oscar). Both are beloved and slobbered on. With some Christmas money from Aunt Michelle she got 2 rattles, 2 pairs of PJs and a warm hat and mittens.

Well, if you couldn't tell from the pictures above, I am still trying to work out the kinks in my new camera. I am slowly getting how to tone down the flash with the exposure... it is a work in progress. And my dang florescent light bulbs... good for the energy bill, bad for lighting. Look at us enjoying our Christmas morning cinnamon rolls! Yummy!

Since Christmas was on Sunday this year the girls got to wear their actual Christmas dresses on Christmas day! Aren't they so dang cute! They all have the same dress!

I tried to take a million and a half pictures of Katelyn with my new camera, and I just wasn't getting it, and it doesn't help that she moves and jerks a whole lot, so most of them came out blurry (also the fault of Tori, I found out later, because she put her cute little fingers all over my camera lens!) and I then turned most of them to black and whites! Oh well!

Our Christmas program at church was wonderful. We enjoyed the music and spoken narration. So here is a funny story: while I was feeding Katelyn after sacrament, the Primary kids got up to sing two songs. After the first song, there was a silent pause while they waited for the next song. Well, Brooke took it upon herself to fill that silent pause with applause and a loud "YEA"! The Primary kids giggled and so did the audience. I missed it all because they turned off the microphone while the kids sang. Apparently after the second song she also applauded and said "Good Job!"

More of the Dinger gang! We went with a black and red theme! Just so you all know...getting pictures with these girls is crazy! But we do it for remembrance sake!

Well...another Christmas has come and gone! I cannot believe it! We really hope to spend next Christmas with family! We sure missed you all this year, but we found out that having Christmas wasn't all too bad with just our own little family (except for the one minor breakdown while listening to Amy Grant's Christmas CD....it made me miss my mom, dad and sister BIG time and there were a lot of tears spilt all over the dishes I was putting away...) maybe next year I won't break it out or I will be celebrating Christmas with them and there will be no need for tears!! Here's to dreaming!

 

Have a Happy New Year!