Our First Christmas at Home

After a late arrival at home on Sunday, we all slept late on Monday - except Daddy.  Daddy had to work... so we managed to help Mommy with laundry, wrapping and a few last minute adventures.  When Daddy got home, we all got dressed up to go to church. 

Church was an adventure.  None of us really wanted to sit still... we all needed bathroom breaks, cough drops, tissues, wanted to sit on Mommy, wanted to sit in the 'restless Angels' room... we did not make it to the end in our original seats, but we DID make it to the end!  Then, we headed home for snacks - and to get ready for Santa!

Here is our treat plate for Santa... we even added a few last minute requests to our notes!  The nutcrackers, princess dolls and puppy were all favorites...

Then, it was off to bed!  Daddy told us we had to stay in bed until 8:00.  Brooke cannot read, but made it until 7:45.  Neela ran into Mommy and Daddy's room at 8:01 -- "I saw the clock said 8:00, but waited a little!"  Then, "Mommy, Santa left presents under the tree in my room.  Brooke, are there presents under your tree??"  And... off they went on a mission - but quietly, so they didn't wake Kylie!

Kylie woke up, missed the chaos in the master bedroom, and went downstairs.  She immediately found her stocking by the fireplace - and pulled everything out!  She was very excited to see what was in her stocking... of course, then her sisters had to open their stockings, too.

The Kindergarten "Christmas Countdown" Bells... we finally got all 24 paper chain pieces removed!

After stockings, we ate breakfast - egg muffins, blueberry muffins, banana muffins... then, Daddy went to a car accident.  So... we tried out some new toys from under our Christmas trees (the ones in our rooms).

Kylie's Legos:

Brooke's Minnie Mouse puzzle:

When Daddy got home, we started up again... this time, we went for the big tree in the living room... Brooke waited more patiently than Neela to open her gifts :-)

Brooke's "B" Ornament

Neela's Cupcake Maker

Kylie's Chocolate Cake Mix... cupcakes anyone?

Tinkerbell!!

Alvin & the Chipmunks

The Squeak-quel!

Rapunzel

Snow White

Brooke was trying to figure out who the "big" gift belonged to... "B-R-O-O-K-E"... it's MINE!

...but we all think the new kitchen will be a LOT of fun :-)

Before we got cleaned up for the "day", we took a picture with Mommy in our matching PJs under the tree.

Brooke got dressed up in her new "Rudolph" outfit from Aunt Renee and Uncle David.

(Can you see where she cut her hair?)

No one was really hungry for lunch, and everyone was quite concerned they had not received their Nutcrackers from Santa.  We really wanted to check the last trees in the house - in the basement - to see if something was there.  Daddy had to check if Santa was still sleeping in the Steelers room (earlier, Daddy checked... Santa had gotten sick, and rested in the Steelers room before flying home!).

Guess what? Santa was gone, so we headed down the stairs... and... found... MORE PRESENTS!

Kylie's iPod...

Razr Scooters...

Neela's iPod...

Brooke's LeadPad...

and... FINALLY... the nutcrackers!!

The house got pretty quiet after that... we tried out our new electronics, with the headphones, for a while.  (Notice how dressed up Kylie was during the day??  She chose "comfy"!)

For dinner, we had ham... the girls tried to sing the Berger table blessing... and offered their own words of thanks!

For desserts, Mommy FINALLY let us have Grandma's little cakes!

...and we also taste-tested our Gingerbread Houses...

Neela shared with Brooke...

It was a very fun, casual day at home!