Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

At our house Christmas Eve is just as important as Christmas day. We start out the evening by getting dressed up in our most beautiful Christmas dresses and going to church. I managed to sneak a couple of pictures in during the excitement, and this was the only good one.

After church (where Mimi and David joined us this year) we head over to IHOP for some yummy pancakes and hot chocolate (or coffee) for dinner. Apparently the rest of the city had the same idea this year...it was crazy! After filling our tummies with lots of yummies we drive around to look at all the wonderful Christmas lights. Highland Park has some pretty amazing displays! You should check it out sometime if you haven't before! The girls ooh'd and ahh'd quite a bit and really enjoyed talking about all the different displays. They discovered some new words at some point over the past few weeks and used them quite a bit during our drive- "magnificent" and "ooh-la-la". They were pretty cute!

After the family time and well after bed time, we finally made it home to get ready for bed and for Santa's stop. It's a tradition for us to give the girls one package to open before bed that night and it always seems to have pajamas inside. I think it's really fun to start the big day off feeling great in new PJ's, so I hope the girls feel the same. They seem to look forward to the pajamas as much as what they will get from Santa!

Addison was starting to get the hang of opening gifts

Emory was so excited to see princesses and sparkles on her nightgown

Trinity was so happy with her new sleepwear!!

All ready for bed!

After getting on their new pajamas they put the reindeer food on the lawn and Santa's treats and letters out so he would enjoy his stay at our house and remember to come back next year. Trinity decided it would be a good idea to leave a healthy treat for him this year since everyone else leaves sugary snacks. He got yogurt, carrots, one piece of yummy fudge and a glass of milk. He said he really, really enjoyed his feast! Good job Trinity!

Dressed up!

I dressed Addison in Trinity's old Santa dress for church on Sunday and tried to get a picture of her along with her Bunbun, also in a Santa dress, here are the results.

Emory's Christmas Party

Emory's Christmas party was the last day of school (an off-day for Emory) so I took her to play with her friends. She has three girls in her class she plays with all the time and she was excited to see them an extra day during the week. She enjoys them so much she made special Christmas necklaces for each of them! Here are the only three pictures from her party that turned out.

Emory got all fixed up for her party- don't you love the pink lipstick?!

Savannah, Emory and Maddie. Emory was too busy talking on the phone to take the picture, but at least she stood still. You can see Emory and Maddie have on the necklaces Emory made.

Addison made it to Emory's party too. I kept finding her stealing food off of different plates.

Trinity's Christmas Party

This year I was fortunate enough to assist with Trinity's Christmas Party at school. I took a few pictures to remember the fun times she has had this year.

As you can see, Addison had the pleasure of joining us and she pretty much stole the show!

Who knew Christmas Sweaters could be so UGLY!

Every year some of our good friends from college organize a party to benefit Toys for Tots and every year the theme is UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATERS. It is so great to see what all people find or make! The best is seeing the guys in their sweaters made for women. Some people spend days making their attire, or adding to something they bought (which Greg and I did last year), while other people are lucky enough to find horribly ugly sweaters at the store (usually thrift stores). I didn't take too many pictures, so I will be borrowing pictures from a few of my friends to add to this post so make sure you check back, but here are some of the pictures I did take.

Greg and I find ourselves noticing Christmas sweaters every time we're out in public during the season and picturing them on our friends. We always feel so guilty! One of my favorite parts of the party is listening to the stories behind the sweaters; so many of the folks get them from their mom's, aunt's or grandmother's closets. I wonder if they realize the sweaters are to be worn in a way of making fun of them...hmmm...

This party is always a great time and we love catching up with our friends we only see a couple of times a year. It is well organized and an awesome contribution to Toys for Tots! There were a lot of smiling faces out there on Christmas morning because of the efforts of this party!

Trinity's great friends

Trinity is blessed this year with a handful of wonderful girl friends in her class. I don't think I've ever met such kind, wonderful, well-mannered and well-behaved kindergarteners in all my life! All the girls in her class are good friends and have play-dates all the time, usually several times a week. A couple of weeks ago she had Jenna Green (there's two Jennas in her class) over and they got kind silly so I had to take some pictures for her to remember these good times.