Merry Christmas!!!

Last night didn't go exactly as planned, turns out pizza places around here are closed on Christmas Eve, so we ended up fixing a frozen pizza instead. But by the time we figured that all out, it was late enough that we didn't get a chance to watch the video. The girls were ok with that, thrilled with their Christmas Jammies, and we enjoyed playing the new game, and they also played checkers with Daddy. Then they helped me make the monkey bread, and went to bed.

This morning A came to our bed by 6:30, but to her credit, stayed quiet (just VERY wiggly) until I started talking to her. What I found more amusing is that it took them awhile to even remember their stockings. We went downstairs, they were anxious for me to get the monkey bread in the oven . . . and FINALLY they noticed that their stockings were no longer empty, silly kids.

Waiting for Mama & Papa (& my grandparents) to get here was hard, but they did pretty well. I finally let them call Papa to see where they were & they were only about 1/2 hour away, so by the time both girls chatted both Mama's AND Papa's ears off, I could send the girls out to the porch to watch for them LOL.

Christmas was it's normal chaos, though the girls were able to read most of the name tags so I could hand-down the "pass-out-the-gifts" job to them. Both girls were thrilled w/ what they got each other. L was very happy with the potholder loom & cotton loops, she's already made a potholder. A got a "learn to knit" kit. And while she's expressed some frustration that it's not as instantaneous as the weaving loom, she's stuck with it pretty well, and is starting to get it slowly but surely. . . so I think in the long run she'll be very proud of herself. She's been wanting to learn to knit for ages (ever since I started trying to teach myself) and I'd been putting her off based on me still trying to figure it out for myself. She's already itching to get her fingers on my yarn stash LOL. When the girls stayed with Mama & Papa for our anniversary, Lexie really took to the weaving activity in the quiet book mom took to church, which is what gave mom the idea of getting the potholder loom. The family ornament we got this year is a picture frame so we had Papa take some family pictures of the 4 of us. And no, A never got dressed today, she insisted her Christmas pjs were the most "Christmassy" thing she owned & so she had to wear them all day LOL.

I'm so excited, Mom & Dad gave me the pampered chef stoneware muffin pan. I've been alternating between using my cast iron (mickey & heart shaped) muffin pans (that are hard to get out becuase of being odd shapes) & using the teflon ones & putting cupcake papers in it. . . Now I have no excuse to not make muffins more often LOL.

While my parents were here, Dad helped me with a couple small "fix-it" projects. I needed more light in the basement where my candle table is, and had lights from where I had the candle stuff at our old house, but dh hadn't found time to hang the lights, so Dad did that. Also, a few weeks ago the overhead light in the girls' room stopped working. I'll admit I hadn't gotten around to climbing up there (it's over the loft bed) to check the lightbulb, but since Dad put in a new light fixture when he built the loft bed (the old fixture hung too low, kids' would've hit their heads all the time) and put a cfl bulb in it, I was doubtful that it was the bulb anyway. So . . . Dad looked into that, turns out it's the switch that's bad, so I need to let the landlord know, and then we'll see if they get around to fixing it for us before Dad's here again.

Mom & Dad also helped us finally put the rug down in the dining room. I bought a rug (actually 3 small rugs because they were out of the big one I liked/could afford) at Ikea right after we moved in, so that I didn't have to worry about kids (and grown-ups for that matter) spilling food (I really, really, really dislike having the only eating area in the house carpeted) but by the time I had things unpacked enough that there was room to put the rugs down I was pregnant and our dining room table's REALLY heavy so it takes 2 people to lift it. Was much easier w/ all 4 of us so dad & dh could lift & mom & I could be one on each side getting stuff centered. So that's finally done, whew!

Tomorrow we celebrate Christmas w/ dh's family.