Merry, merry Christmas!

It was most certainly a merry, merry Christmas at our house this morning. It all started last night when the girls were super excited to don their new pajamas and go to bed (a first) so that Santa could come.

At about 4:00 this morning, Emily woke up wanting to open her presents. This is the first year she has gotten out of bed before 7:00 or 8:00. I coaxed her back to bed, telling her it was much too early to get up. "Can't I just go down there to see if he has come yet?" she asked as I guided her back to her room.

"But Emily, if he hasn't come, and he's trying to come, he won't be able to come because you are awake." That sealed the deal until 6:00.

"Can we open them now?" an anxious child begged.

"Not until 7:00. How about you sleep in my bed?" She agreed, and I was glad. I was tired of getting out of my bed to usher that one back to hers. She woke at 7:21 and I managed to keep her in bed (checking the clock every minute) until 7:30. That's when she jumped out of our bed, ran to Hannah's room (who was still sleeping), and together bolted down the stairs. We could hear their excited squeals all the way upstairs.

One of the first presents they opened was the American Girl Doll they each asked for. I think this picture here adequately sums up how they felt about this gift and all the others to come:

Hannah danced when she opened her bookbag on wheels:

And they both enjoyed their webkins:

Knowing Emily has a penchant for building herself tents out of blankets and chairs, he brought her a pretty cool tent. The funny thing is, she wasn't very happy about it when she opened it. The look on her face gave it away. "Dora????" she asked. She thought it was going to be something babyish (and so did I, to tell you the truth, since I wasn't aware of this gift brought by Santa), that is until Daddy put it up in the basement:

IT'S HUGE!!!!!

They can stand in there without touching the top.

After all was said and done, I sat on the couch, looking at the girls and their toys, the fire blazing in the fireplace, and Ray putting stuff together, and felt so blessed. I mean, I look at these 2 and see all their joy and excitement and innocence, and the worries and the stress and the irritations melt away.

And I watch Ray so involved with their interests and their girl toys and my heart melts (believe that or not--Ray melts my heart!) ;-)

Ahh, what a wonderful life it is indeed!