Merry Christmas!

I'll start our tales of Christmas with our pre-holiday baking. Katie helped with the Snickerdoodles (which the girls called Nickerpoodles) and Caroline assisted with Daddy's other favorite cookie- Spider Cookies which is a recipe from his family. I know Spider cookies sound more like Halloweek than Christmas, but Jamie enjoys them, and they are a no-bake variety, so they fit in well with all of the baking.

After all of the baking, the girls sang some Christmas karaoke, which was entertaining.

On Christmas Eve day there was more work in the kitchen. In addition to doing our cookie cutter cookies, Katie and Poppy helped crush some candy canes for my candy cane cake. Poppy was happy to be involved with a cookie project that necessitated a hammer!

The girls got plenty messy with their cookie decorations. Thankfully, Grandma was there to ration the sprinkles!

Just as we were wrapping up the cookie prep, Jen, Billy, Hannah and Emma arrived. The girls were happy to see each other and sat down to lunch.

After a too-brief naptime, it was time to head to Christmas Eve mass (which started at 3:30). Seat-saving was not allowed, so we had to send most of our crew early to ensure that we could sit. As expected it was very crowded, but we had no major schedule snafus (as we have the last two years), so we'll call it a success! The girls all did pretty well, but we were grateful that our seats allowed some room to roam.

After mass we attempted some family photos, but it seems we used up all of our sitting still at church!

After dinner and PJs, I read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas to the girls. Some were more attentive than others and everyone wanted to sit by Emma.

After the book, we got our cookies ready for Santa and Katie spread her reindeer food in the yard. Then we got everyone settled for a not-long-enough long winter's nap.

The girls were up early-ish, but Billy kept them contained until the designated 8 a.m. And then finally they were allowed to come down stairs.

As always, we were blessed with many gifts. It was a bit chaotic opening the many presents, but it seemed that Santa was good to everyone!

Lily enjoyed opening her stocking.

Katie was delighted with her Easy Bake Oven from Santa- her #1 request.

The girls were also excited about their new sleds.

In preparation for the sleepover party, Katie and Caroline got new sleeping bags from us (they included a furry dog on top if you are wondering what Caroline is hugging).

Lily used her nose to unwrap a new bone.

Caroline liked her Tag Jr. reading system and admired some new books.

After the kids finished their gift opening, we had breakfast and then the kids played with their toys.

Caroline received an elaborate vet set from Santa and here she is sporting the glasses and pager.

Poppy enjoyed playing with Emma's new musical instruments, even though their were no granddaughters nearby to play with.

Grandma helped Caroline play with one of her new toys and then Caroline and Hannah really enjoyed playing with the new baby doll things. I missed a great photo when I discovered that Caroline had wedged herself into the little baby doll crib, covered herself with a doll blanket and inserted a doll's pacifier in her mouth. Unfortunately, I was trying to convey to her that she was too big for the crib and that it was not meant for her to sit in . . . while simultaneously thinking "quick get the camera!"

That afternoon, Poppy and I got to work assembling the gingerbread village, which required a fair bit of handywork . . . they weren't solid enough to work on, so the kids didn't decorate them until Saturday.

We enjoyed a nice meal with the star being Jamie's much-labored-over prime rib roast. Apparently I failed to take a photo of us eating, but you can imagine what it looked like! After our feast, we talked ourselves into some candy cane cake and peppermint ice cream and wrapped up the fun-filled day by playing with more new toys, including Twister.

Here, Emma sat her "right bum on yellow" so Katie and Caroline followed suit.

The day flew by in a blur of ripped paper and oven timers, but we had a nice time and a good visit with everyone. Hope all of you had a nice holiday, too!