In an effort to make the most of our time, when the girls woke up I asked them if they wanted to open presents first or eat breakfast first--to which Brooke said "eat bwekfast" and Megan said "presents!". Classic.
The presents prevailed and Brooke was pretty satisfied with the candy in the stockings (we did have a yummy breakfast later).
Our big present this year was a dollhouse from my Aunt Tami to my girls. They LOVED it. And Grandpa and Tyler brought home their favorite princess dolls from Disney World--another favorite.
As usual, this terrible picture was the best pic we got of all three girls. It was about 6:45 am (which is pretty good for my early risers). Waiting to go see the tree!
Brooke with her beloved "I Know You"
Megan and Ariel
Candy got a sweet little rattle doll.
Here we are, dressed and ready for church--they moved the princesses right into the new house.
After church, Candy snuck a few zzzs before my family descended on us :)
Aunt Carrie with the babies (Molly and Candy)
Opening presents from my Dad--socks for us girls (from my Mom's stash of little gifts) AND--a wheat grinder. Which actually meant more to me than my Dad knew. He said Mom told him to get those for each of us for Christmas. What made it meaningful was that I wanted one last year. And last year Mom got us the Safety Kids books and cds instead and told me that she could get me a wheat grinder ANY year, but she loved that book series and they were going to stop making them. And for some reason I didn't want to make my Dad feel like he HAD to get me a wheat grinder, so I didn't tell him. I just chalked it up as one more thing that stinks because Mom was gone. I'd even decided I'd just save up my Christmas money and buy one soon. And then, there it was. Just as she would have done. It made my day.
Shad and Amy got us a ping pong net and paddles to go with the ping pong table we rescued from the side of the road over 2 years before. We finally got to use it!
After we played for a while, we headed back down to my Dad's house. We all stopped at Mom's grave and left flowers. We didn't stay very long, but it was so nice to pause and do that small thing for her. I just remember marveling at how different things could be in one short year.
Back at my Dad's, we ate leftovers and tried out Headbanz--a new game Shad and Amy got. Unfortunately the kids (and adults) were getting a little tired and grumpy by then, so the game was short lived and we headed out pretty early to put our tired kids and selves to bed. All in all, it was a great day.
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