Christmas Eve and Day

The girls helped decorate cookies for Santa before bed time and we wrote Santa a short note on the plate we placed them on. There was a lot of excitement and a little sadness. Elizabeth knew that Arnie (our elf) would be gone in the morning..

As expected Santa made a stop at our house that night. He ate a few bites of the cookies (leaving a heart behind, do you see it?) and drank a little eggnog. He left the girls their Santa 'n Me plate complete with the addition of his hand print. The reindeer ate the reindeer food we left out for them in the bowls we made at the Santa 'n me event at Art Space Studio. Arnie (our elf) returned home to the North Pole until next December. It was a busy night. The empty tree became buried behind a pile of packages.

When the girls woke up Christmas morning the first thing they did was checked to see if the reindeer had ate the food they left out. Then they checked to see if Santa ate the cookies they had left for him. Elizabeth declared that Santa didn't eat all of the cookies (could she have them?) or drink all of his eggnog. Then Elizabeth went running to see if maybe, just maybe, Arnie had decided to stay. Much to her dismay he was gone. They finally checked out what Santa had left under the tree. I don't think they were too sure about where to even begin.

The girls had a great time with all of the gifts. Katherine still has not quite figured out opening gifts yet. I think that Dennis and I ended up opening most of hers. She just wanted to play with the items after they were opened. I'm sure that next year will be a completely different story. They spent most of they day playing with the new toys that they received. It was a lot of fun. You can find additional pictures here.

Dennis' parents joined us for a little video conferencing a little later in the morning. The girls enjoyed seeing them. We'd hoped to catch up with other family via video conferencing a little later on, but didn't get that opportunity. Hopefully, we'll coordinate that better next year.