Christmas!

We were up late enough on Christmas Eve that the girls slept in a little.  We heard them stirring around 6:45 am, so Dan and I headed upstairs so we could be with them when they saw the tree.  Candy was still sleeping, so we woke her up and brought her in with the big girls.  They were excited (and so were we!).

 

 Slowly waking up...

Candy getting some morning face squishing...

Candy immediately saw the stars of the show--bikes from Santa!  The older girls--had a harder time :)

Finally they noticed!!  They were THRILLED.

They were almost equally as thrilled by the candy in their stockings.  Megan immediately ate every piece of hers (Santa knew to only put in 3 or 4 pieces) and proceeded to sneak every piece from MINE!  Santa had given me about a dozen pieces, and by the time we finished opening presents she had eaten every one!  Good thing she'd already opened her present from Santa or she would have been in trouble...

Cute, cute Candy...

I loved watching the girls open their presents from each other.  Megan and Brooke got Candy a doll--here you see Candy opening it (ha!)

Finally she got to look at it and was pretty happy...

Brooke and Candy gave Megan the Ariel dress--Megan was pretty excited that after a few weeks of trying on princess dresses I was making that weren't for her that Mom had snuck one in for her!

Brooke was ecstatic with the Sleeping Beauty dress from Candy and Megan--she wore it all day...

We finished opening presents around 8 am and headed out to ride bikes.  It was sunny and warm (near 80) and it was so fun to watch the girls go.  They did pretty well.  They each had a few spills but were excited enough to keep trying.  We ate a yummy breakfast of bacon, walnut rolls, egg nog, oj, etc.  We headed out on the bikes again as my Dad and Carrie and Tyler arrived.  We showed them our presents, opened presents from Grandpa and Carrie and grabbed a snack before heading to my brother Shad's to see how their morning went. 

By the time we got to Shad's, it had dropped about 15 degrees and was windy!  Shad's kids got some really fun outside toys...that the adults couldn't wait to try :)

A little go-kart...

A motorized scooter...

After a fun afternoon at Shad's, we headed home for a great dinner with the T family.  They made such a yummy traditional Christmas dinner--ham, potatoes, salad, rolls, and this really cool chocolate cake peppermint ice cream roll up dessert.  We had so much fun playing. 

But by 6:30, our kids were done.  The girls rode their bikes over for dinner (it was sunny and about 60 degrees when we got there).  But when we rode home it was dark, windy, and 44 degrees!  Brrr!!!!  It felt like a long ride home.  But we made it.  It was such a fun Christmas with the girls.  We really loved celebrating the birthday of our Savior with family and friends that we love!