Christmas Memories 2010

I hope you all got what you wanted for Christmas. I certainly did! All I really wanted was a low-key day and that's exactly what I got! November and December were very busy, very stressful and sometimes very annoying so I decided that we'd hunker down -- just the four of us! -- for Christmas day. Of course we got started early on Christmas Eve with our annual trip to Terry's for pizza and then to drive around and look at lights (and look for Santa's sleigh, which Lizzie is pretty sure she saw) and then home to leave out the cookies and milk for Santa. Then bed.

But even BEFORE all that, both girls were looking everywhere for something to do to pass the time more quickly. Here, Hannah is teaching Cash to read. After this she took his paw and had him write his name a few times. Oh, and Cash is wearing that cone because he was fixed last week (10 days ago) and it went a bit bad so he's been healing for days and days and days. But the good news is that he'll actually sit still to learn how to read and write.

After the girls went to bed Cash took up a place on the couch to watch for Santa (the cone comes off when I can watch him):
The next morning the girls managed to stay asleep until about 6:30 and we let them go downstairs at 7 a.m. to open presents. Rob, too. Although I had to wake him up.

Rounding the corner ... starting to see the gifts...

NEW BIKES. YAY!!!! AND, they are BMX freestyle stunt bikes because Mrs. Santa didn't read the labels, but just really liked the colors so she sent Santa with two of them. So now the daredevil girls can do super wheelies and spin the front wheel 360 degrees. And they can stand on the back wheel and the front wheel. Yeah, we can't wait for them to figure that all out.

Then it was time to EAT!!! Here Rob carves the prime rib, while Cash waits, hopes and dreams that he'll suddenly toss it on the floor for him:

Getting ready to dig in. The menu was tortellini alfredo (first course), the roast, creamed onions, turnip, Christmas green beans and roasted potatoes. That's sparkling cider in the girls' glasses. Oh, and dessert was pumpkin pie and French Silk pie. There was enough so that we managed to do the whole thing again for dinner tonight!Then it was time to try out the bikes. The girls loved the way they looked but they've never had bikes without foot/coasting brakes, so there was a little bit of a learning curve. Especially when Rob noticed that one of Santa's elves at Walmart forgot to attach Lizzie's front brakes:

Hannah had no trouble figuring it out, and she was off -- up and down the driveway. Luckily they got to ride their bikes yesterday, because today we're expecting a bunch of snow so I'm pretty sure the bikes will be in the shed for a good long while. Oh, and right after this picture I told Hannah to put her helmet on!!!

But this is really how the girls spent much of their time since Christmas morning. These are their DSis and they love them. LOVE THEM.
So that was our Christmas. Low key, family oriented and perfect!!