Our Christmas

We had an awesome Christmas!! For the first time in several years, I do NOT have the after Christmas blues! I am normally very sad for a few days after the holidays because I haven't been with my family for years. But..............

.........this year, my entire family - 2 sisters, 1 brother, 3 neices, 3 nephews, 1 great-nephew, 1 brother-in-law, 1 nephew-in-law, 1 sister boyfriend, 1 step-father, 1 fiance to step-father, 1 daughter of fiance to step-father, 1 friend of brother - all came to my house on Christmas Day! We had a blast.....we ate, we had our $1 gift exchange, we played games and had the loud, noisy, chaotic Christmas that I've missed and wanted for years. It was awesome!!

Liz's family (her parents, sister and brother) all came over on Christmas Eve for enchilada dinner (it's also Catrina's birthday) and gift exchange. I was also very happy with how it turned out. For the first time in my experience with this family, the focus was all on the girls. We had dinner, then exchanged gifts, then we gave the girls baths and put them in their new matching pajamas. After that, we went outside and put the reindeer food on the lawn and put out the Santa cookies. I, then read them the Christmas story and tucked them into bed. Everyone left and Liz and I cleaned up and got ready for the next day.

Christmas morning, Cylie was up at 5 and came to our bed. I snuggled with her to try and get her to go back to sleep, but it didn't work. She just laid there wide awake. I finally sent a text to Catrina letting her know she was awake and to come on and bring her Santa gifts (she had forgotten them the night before). I kept Cylie in bed with me until we heard her come in. Cylie assumed it was Santa, and I told her to hurry and close her eyes and pretend to be asleep. She did. It was so cute. Then, Catrina came in to say Hi. I asked Cylie if we should go see if Santa came and ate his cookies. She ran to the fireplace and saw the cookies gone; she got so excited, it made me teary!!

Very nice, very peaceful........the best one yet and I know they will only get better.

I have to say..............experiencing the magic of Christmas through the eyes of these two little girls is amazing!