Christmas Day

The girls slept in late since we had been up late the night before.  Savannah was the first to wake up.  She could tell that Santa had come because she could see the bikes downstairs.  She was pretty excited and tried to wake up her sisters telling them that Santa had left them bikes, but they were still moving slow.  Finally we got everyone up and ready and headed downstairs around 10 to see what Santa had brought.  At first they were slowly walking down the stairs taking it all in and shouting about what they saw.  Then they decided faster was better and 'scooted' down the stairs to see everything.

Savannah in the 'castle'

They were most excited about the big castle Santa had brought.  It is a round castle with 4 corners that have shelves inside that make a dollhouse.  The outside is mostly a tent type material.  It is plenty big enough for all 3 girls to play inside together.

Olivia really liked the fire truck that Santa left, her daddy had taken her to see a real fire truck on Saturday when Emma and I had gone to a shower and Savannah was with Nana.  Olivia talks about the firemen and firetrucks and asks to see the photo Scott took, so I wasn't surprised when she showed such an interest in the toy firetruck. 

Savannah got on the bike and wanted to put on her helmet and ride it around, we let her go a little ways in the house but then promised we would head outside in a bit.

Emma on left, Olivia middle, Savannah on right

We opened gifts after playing with all of the things Santa left and we all got some very nice things.  I got a nice pearl necklace and earrings (always a good thing).  Scott got a paperweight with the girls photo and a calendar.  He also got a nice pair of shoes for work (he has expensive taste in shoes) and a few tools.  The girls got some Tinker Bell pjs which were a hit as they are in a Tinker Bell phase right now.  They also each got a pink Scooter from mommy and daddy which they loved, again we had to promise to make it outside later to play with it.  They each got an ornament and together they got a triple stroller for their dolls.  They each got a special electronic toy, Emma got a small green iphone type toy, Olivia got a book reader toy, and Savannah got a pink ipad type toy. 



After gifts we had some quick breakfast and headed outside to ride our new bikes and scooters.  We were fortunate that it was a nice sunny day and pretty warm too in the mid 50s.  We stayed out for about 1/2 an hour and then came in to see what Santa had left in our stockings.  More goodies for everyone including some candy canes which they had asked for and of course the toy they had requested -- dinosaurs.

We headed down to my Aunt Pat's for lunch with the entire family, usually my mom does Christmas Day at her house but there was a scheduling conflict for one of my aunt's kids so they needed to do it there this year.  It was nice out and the kids had fun playing outside while we all ate way to much food.  The small cousins all draw names so they each got a gift, there names were actually all drawn by the same family which was kind of nice because they all got a princess crown and teacups with plates that were specific to their princesses.  They loved their new gifts and we all had a great time.

As if that wasn't a full enough day we then had to head over to my mom's house and do Christmas with my sisters and their families.  We arrived a little after 5pm but some of the kids had fallen asleep on the way so we didn't really get started until 6pm.  We had some breakfast casserole and cinnamon rolls but mostly we were all still too full to eat.  We opened gifts and tried to make it organized but with 7 kids we finally just gave in and let them open them up.  The girls got some new clothes and some toys including stuffed animals and play doh.  We were all exhausted by the end of the night and ready to crash.  The girls fell asleep on the way home, which hasn't happened in a long time and we ended up carrying them to bed.  What a long, but fun day!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a bit different for us this year, this was the first year in my life that I did not go to my grandfather’s house for Christmas Eve.  He passed away 2 years ago, but last year we still had it there since my Aunt owned the house.  Earlier this year my aunt sold the house so we wouldn't be able to meet there this year.  We could have moved our Christmas Eve gathering to another house but with everyone having families of their own it is hard to do a gathering on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day both.  It is kind of sad to see a tradition go away, but we decided to still do the present exchange and just moved it to Christmas day.

 

With this change we found ourselves with nothing to do on Christmas Eve.  I've always thought it would be nice to do a Christmas Eve service so we called my parents to see if they would be interested in doing one with us.  There church as having one at 7pm, so we decided to do dinner together and church afterwards.  I worked until 2pm so it was still a little rushed to get the ham biscuits made and a few last minute things done, but we made it there by 5:30 and had a nice meal.  It was cold and a little rainy so the soup and hot ham biscuits were perfect. 

 

The service was very nice, the girls sat with us and did very well.  They even went down and did communion with us.  The highlight was the candles they passed out, each girl got to hold one (with assistance).  The wax dripped on Olivia a little and she was a little timid about holding it after that.

 

After service we came back and had some cookies and took a few pictures by the tree. 

















Nana and Paw-Paw were trying to make the girls laugh so when it was Nana and Paw-Paw's turn for a photo the girls were busy trying to make them smile.

When we left the girls wanted to go see the Christmas lights so we drove down the street to a house that has tons and tons of lights that are synced to a music station.  We stayed for a bit listening and watching all the lights and inflatables.

 

When we got home it was already 10pm, we hurried to get everyone in bed so Santa could come but the girls were so excited.  They kept thinking they would hear Santa's bells and then they would realize the cat had come in (she has a bell on her collar) and they would say to each other, "No, that is just Cuddles"  They finally fell asleep around 11pm.

Gingerbread House

We invited Nana over on her first day of Christmas vacation to come eat lunch and decorate a gingerbread house.  I put the house together the night before, who knew that would be hard.  I had to take it apart and start over after a while.  The icing was not drying very fast so I'm very glad I had started early so it could dry overnight.

We had lunch at Showmar's which was very nice. Then we came back and I prepared all of the icing bags for the girls and put candy in their cups for decorating. They were very into decorating the house and did well. We had a lot of candy eating during the event, and everyone was caught liking their icing bags. Olivia was especially bad about getting some icing on the house and then squeezing it in her mouth.  It was a success we all had fun, but I have to say after watching them decorate the house I will not be eating any. 

 

 

Preschool Christmas Party

The girls had their second party at school this week and it was my turn to help organize.  I choose to do the craft since I really like being crafty.  I signed up to do the Christmas party because I thought there would be lots of fun things to do that time of year.  As Scott pointed out though the timing was not very good since there is always a lot of stuff to do around the Holidays. 

It was fun to see the girls at school, they were surprised and happy to see me show up at an unexpected time.  The first thing we did was my craft which was a tree I had cut with my Cricut and all the kids glued on tissue paper on the back to make 'lights' for the tree.  They turned out so cute that I had the girls make extras at home for family and friends.

After craft was story time, here is a cute picture of everyone listening.

Olivia caught me taking pictures and turned around to smile.

After the book everyone enjoyed a cupcake.  Something interesting I noticed was were they choose to sit during the craft and cupcake.  Olivia and Savannah sat at one table and both times Emma sat at a different table.  Olivia sat beside Olivia A. (another triplet) both times, they seem to be good friends. 

A little off topic but Olivia A has 2 brothers in the class and so she calls my girls her 'sisters'.  She has done it for a while now and so now my girls call Olivia A. their sister, it is so cute.  They talk about their friends sometimes at home and on Fridays we usually go to the playground so they can play and I see them interact with some of the girls.  Emma has a friend named Sarah Kate that she just loves to play with, it is funny because she is not in her class so I'm not sure how they met.

Here is a picture of Emma at her own table, notice how it is mostly boys...hmmmm.  I hope that is not a sign for the future.

Christmas Parade

Today we had a fun time at the Christmas parade in Waxhaw.  It was a nice warm day but a little cloudy, and though it looked like rain a few times it only sprinkled for a few minutes. We went to church then drove down to Waxhaw to eat lunch before the parade.  We had a nice spot by the train tracks.  We even took a few pictures of the kids before the parade that turned out cute.

The kids had fun getting the candy at the parade, at one point Emma looked at me and said, "Mommy I'm so happy".  So sweet, and it sure made me happy that a little parade could bring such smiles to everyone's face.  The girls liked when the bands would come by and they would do a little dancing, especially Emma and Savannah.  It was a nice day.

Santa Claus Visit

We took the girls over to our clubhouse where Santa and Mrs. Claus were visiting.  They watched the other kids sit on his lap and patiently waited their turn.  While we waited, no one seemed extremely excited but then again no one was crying either.  When it was our turn Emma ran right up to Santa and sat in his lap, Olivia surprised me a bit and ran right past Santa to sit with Mrs. Claus, they were both excited and each told what they wanted.  I tried to get Olivia to sit with Santa but she wouldn't.  Savannah would not sit with either at first and hid behind her dad.  Finally I coaxed Savannah into sitting on Mrs. Claus while I held her hand.  Once she was up there she didn't seem to notice as I backed away. 

After we were finished we asked the girls what they had asked Santa (or Mrs. Claus) for.  Emma said "a baby doll".  Olivia then said, "Emma you don't need any more baby dolls, you have enough".  Scott and I laughed at that and agreed with Olivia quietly.  Olivia said she asked for a dinosaur and Savannah said she asked for a dinosaur too.

Why a dinosaur, I have no idea honestly, but that is what they have all been saying lately.  The colors change from day to day and most recently, Emma wanted a green one, Olivia a purple, and Savannah a pink. 

Scott and I are confused over why everyone suddenly wants a dinosaur so we took Emma and Olivia to the dollar store (Savannah was spending the night with my mom) and we let them pick out a dinosaur, yes one for Savannah too.  So now we are hoping that they have a dinosaur and will ask for other things.