Christmas 2010

I love Christmas for all the new traditions that we introduce as Sophia gets older. This year we welcomed our elf, "Jolly Molly" into our home for the Christmas season. Jolly Molly is an "Elf on a Shelf." He moves around the house each night and hides in different locations in order to watch Sophia and then report back to Santa if she is being a good girl during the holiday season. Sophia picked his name based on her favorite elf she met at Santa's Village when we went. He was a wonderful guest and added a lot of mystery and laughs to our home this Christmas....like when he was hiding in the fridge sitting on the butter!

Sophia was a great help decorating the house this year. She actually remembered where many of the decorations went from the previous year.

She loved setting up the nativity and by the end of the season could tell you the whole story of baby Jesus's birthday.

Daddy did a great job decorating the outside of the house....like always. By the end of the Thanksgiving weekend we had visited "Santa's Village" and had the entire house decorated. We were ready to begin our holiday season.

Christmas Eve

We hosted Christmas Eve this year with my family. We all had a great time.

This year Nana Deb was here to see Sophia open her Christmas pajamas. Since Sophia was a baby, Nana Deb has been making the grandchildren pajamas to wear to bed on Christmas Eve so they would look their best when Santa came to visit.

Her "best" present of the day was her scooter. She was asking for this scooter since October when she saw some of the neighborhood kids riding them outside our house. Don't tell Santa but I think this was her favorite gift.

Once everyone left we moved on to our family Christmas Eve traditions. Sophia and I made some cookies for Santa Claus and put them out on the table in the living room to make it easier for Santa to find.

Then, she got into her new pajamas and modeled for the camera.

After getting into our pajamas we got dressed for the chilly December night and headed outside to sprinkle the reindeer food on the front lawn so that the reindeer would be able to find our house.

Christmas Morning

Sophia got up before the sun excited to open her presents but not as excited to see if Santa came. She sent Mike into the living room first to make sure that Santa came and left presents but also that he wasn't still in the living room. Once Mike gave the "OK" that Santa was gone she made a mad dash to her stocking and the fun began!

Santa brought her the #1 item on her list....a hoola hoop!

A new Mommy of twin girls!

Helping Daddy open his present...she is told him everything she bought him before it was even out of the bag.

Daddy and Sophia setting up her matchbox garage while I made Christmas breakfast.

Presents open and toys assembled before 8:00am...

and outside on her scooter before 9:00am.

Even Christmas morning phone calls didn't keep her away from having fun!

Our Newest Christmas Tradition

With all the excitement of hosting Christmas Eve dinner and the anticipation of Christmas Day I forgot one important detail...buying Christmas dinner.

The day before Christmas Eve I cleaned out the cabinets and refrigerator in order to make room for all the food for Christmas Eve dinner. I went food shopping, finished wrapping and went to bed the night before Christmas Eve feeling, for once, that I was ahead of schedule. Well, up until 10:00am on Christmas Day I was... until I went into the fridge and couldn't find the roast beef. That is when I realized...I never bought it. We didn't even have leftovers from the night before to eat because I sent everyone home with then thinking I would have lots of food left over from Christmas dinner.

So, Mike made a suggestion that we go out to dinner for Christmas. I wasn't happy about that decision but after calling a number of grocery stores in the area that were closed I gave in to his idea. Around 4:00pm we called around to different restaurants to see which ones were open and the only one that was open was TGI Fridays at the Loop.

We ended up eating Christmas dinner at TGI Fridays and having a great time. We enjoyed it so much that we have decided that Christmas dinner from now on will be at that restaurant!

Another wonderful Christmas is over and the anticipation for next year's Christmas has already begun!