Our Christmas

Since Christmas day landed on a Sunday this year, we decided to celebrate a day early so that we could relax  at home all day. My parents came over on "our" Christmas eve and we ate a delicious meal of garlic & basil stuffed pork tenderloin, wild rice with caramelized onions and cranberries, and green bean casserole before opening our presents. 

I caught a totally candid moment of sisterly love..

We skyped with my brother Ben and his wife Jazmin, while we opened the presents that they sent for us. It's amazing to see the relationship that Mollie has with them developed almost entirely through skype. Ben moved to Mexico when Mollie was about a month old, and she has only seen them in person once since then, but you would think they live next door by the way she interacts with them! 

Delia got into one of her gifts and the green tissue paper turned her mouth and hands green!

Mollie helped Pappy open his pipe from Ben and Jazmin and pretended to be Frosty the Snowman.. 

Here she is opening her first present, some adorable Minnetonka mocassins from her "Ganny" (Stu's mom).

Delia got a pair too!

Delia had her first food! My aunt Amanda made her some homemade teething biscuits, it was such a perfect gift!

Meemaw (my mom's mom) had my mom pick out Mollie and Delia's presents from her. Delia got this stacking toy that makes lights and sounds when you put the rings on it. Both girls love it..

..and Mollie got this castle tent. This was one of Mollie's first presents to open, and after opening each present, she would take it into her tent until it was her turn to open again. It was hard to get her away from it!

Right before my mom and dad were going to go home (around midnight!), my mom took Mollie downstairs, and brought her up in this nightgown! Meemaw made it for me when I was around Mollie's age and I wore it at Christmastime. I was so surprised to see her in it and couldn't stop smiling! 

Here she is seeing her presents under the tree in the morning..

Her main present from Stu and I was a baby doll. A few weeks ago I was talking to her about Christmas and I think I asked her what she wanted for Christmas, and I said, "Do you want a baby doll?" Well, she really latched on to that idea and has been talking about getting a doll ever since. 

This is the only picture I got of the actual doll!

Here she is modeling her moccasins...

Finally opening her stocking..

Stu got her a Dora electric toothbrush..

I put the magnetic paper dolls I made for her in her stocking. Here is the blog I got the idea from and here is a link to the actual Betsy McCall paper dolls.

I didn't know how much she'd really like them but she wanted to use them immediately so we went to the fridge and she loved playing with them. 

It's pretty funny to see some of the outfits she comes up with! 

She's gone to the fridge to play with them at least five times today so I'd say they were a success!

Mollie really liked this toy that Delia got from Grandpa Ron and Grandma Cece. You plug it into your computer and program it to say the kids name and can choose different songs for it to play. It plays lullabies and regular kid songs. Mollie knows the words to most of them and loves to sing along.

Delia liked her toys too but can be entertained with just about anything..

Eating a very late breakfast..

I took this picture and it reminded me of some pictures I took of Mollie eating breakfast last Christmas morning...

..so I looked them up to see how much she's changed, and realized I captured the exact same expression!!

I have been wanting to get a family picture outside in the snow for a while now, and Christmas was the perfect day! It looks so beautiful around our apartment after a fresh snow and it had just snowed a day or two before these were taken. 

We had a great Christmas, and hope you did too!