Christmas 2009 Extravaganza- Part One

Shortly after Thanksgiving the girls became aware that Santa Claus was coming to town. I blame this mainly on Morgan because she has been around long enough to know what happens when the Christmas decorations start to come out. So she quickly clued her sister into the greatness of Christmas. Now even though she knows that Santa brings her presents, she isn't quite old enough to understand the idea of a Christmas List- so for a solid two months Greg and I were bombarded with "I want that!" when a commercial came on TV.

We knew we would get them some board games because Morgan has finally reached the age where we can play with her so after buying some Christmas gifts we also decided to buy some games that we could play while on vacation. Since Greg and I both took the week of Christmas off work we knew we might get cabin fever! I let Greg pick out the games and he came home with Jenga. I was afraid Morgan wouldn't really want to play but to my surprise she did!

She actually wasn't too bad at the game, until the idea of physics came into play. She couldn't quite understand why it was a bad idea to pull the last remaining block out from under the tower. So her answer to many of the tough plays was to put her hand on the top of the tower and hold it steady. So I warn those playing with Morgan.....she doesn't play fair!

Our week off with the girls was pretty fun! We had to make lots of preparations for Christmas since most of the family comes to our house (which is very convenient!). We cleaned, played games, had a movie night and rested up. Once everyone arrived the girls became pretty frustrated with the idea of not being able to open their presents. I honestly thought Morgan might go insane! Greg and I only put the presents out for other people since Santa brings all the presents for the girls, so it took awhile for their gifts to arrive from out of town family. Greg's family in Florida mailed up some presents and Morgan figured out which ones were for her. When I tried to tel her that there were no presents for her she said "No Mommy- this one, see it says M-O-R-G-A-N!" She had me there.

We made them wait---forever--to open presents (really just until Grandma got to town), but in the meantime Morgan and Elizabeth figured out other things they could do with the presents.

Morgan took each present she could find and started stacking them.

She made the tower as tall as she could.....

And then Elizabeth came and pushed them down. (We made sure there were no breakable items before she started doing this!) This process went a couple of times before they got bored.

The other all important task before Christmas was to make COOKIES! I made a couple of batches before Christmas for Morgan's and Elizabeth's teachers but I still had to feed the family. So Morgan put on her new apron (a gift from the neighbor) and helped me make cookies. She is quite the baker!

One the cookies were made, cut out, baked and cooled we got to do the fun part- DECORATE! Unfortunately Elizabeth did not join us for decorating. She was taking a nap. And it worked out better, because the previous batches of decorated cookies was a true nightmare. Let's just say Elizabeth was one giant sprinkle by the end of it.

So Morgan, Grandma, Mimi and I got our icing and sprinkles out and started making some of the most beautiful cookies ever! First we had to get our icing.....

Then we had to squeeze it onto the cookie....

Then we had to get some sprinkles (yes we washed our hands!)....

Then they were done!

Every good chef has to taste their goods!

Some of Morgan's cookies had slightly more icing or sprinkles then others and surprisingly those were the cookies she chose for herself when it was time to have one after dinner.

The sugar from the cookies made the girls bounce off the walls, floors and ceiling. And for awhile I thought they were going to be permanently addicted to sugar. At times they got very upset when they couldn't have their sugar fix.

But they were quickly reminded that if they weren't good then Santa wouldn't stop at our house. So their moods improved dramatically....

Overall Christmas 2009 was a huge success! Lots of time with family and friends (which will come in a later post) and plenty of new toys to play with. We hope you had a Merry Christmas too!