A Merry Little Christmas

Madison just couldn't wait for today!  We heard her scurry out of bed this morning - it's always funny how that works as parents.  You're partially asleep, but you're listening for that sound in the morning, the sound of your child waking up and marching out to see if there's something under the tree.  Oh yes, there was!

You can see here that Madison must have been good again this year, as there were plenty of gifts for her under the tree.  Most notably, there's a Southern Belle costume that she asked for on her note to Santa.  The stockings were filled, and she was so ready to start ripping into these presents!

We let her open a few to begin with, and as you can see, the books got her attention right away.  She had asked for a few books, and was even reading them throughout the day.  Meanwhile, Mommy was getting the grandparents on the computer so they could watch too:

We shared Christmas with the grandparents in Florida, as you can see above.  Mommy - and sometimes Daddy - held the camera so they could watch as Madison opened various presents from Santa, and one from them as well.  Here's a big present from Mommy and Daddy:

Madison was taking pictures all day now.  This is the camera that we used to take pictures in China when we first met Madison.  The flash isn't 100%, and previously the lens was broken.  But we invested in a new lens for her, and it should be a good camera to start learning about taking pictures with.  She took about sixty today, or something like that!

Daddy took a lot of pictures too!  But it's okay, because we're parents and it's Christmas.  We had the Christmas music playing this morning, our tea in hand, and just sat there enjoying Madison's facial expressions as she went from one gift to another.  She got LEGO Dimensions, plenty of books including Nancy Drew, costumes, clothing, LEGO toys, movies and even this:

This is a mermaid blanket.  I think.  It covers her feet and keeps her legs and feet warm.  It has been very useful as she sits and watches a movie with us at night!  Oh, and look at her reaction when she got this card here:

She's gotten a card that is telling her that Mommy and Daddy are signing her up for the Marine Science Center Camp again.  She has been really wanting to go back to that, so she was all smiles when she discovered she's going back.

Soon afterwards, the grandparents and cousins were here to celebrate Christmas!

This year, we had Christmas at our house, which meant that Mommy spent quite a long time preparing food for everyone.  We even got to use some of our new Christmas dishes and glassware, which looked very nice on the table.  

Of course, the food looked really good too.  We had turkey, sweet potato casserole, pork and this au jus that was just amazing, and all kinds of desserts.  Of course,  we had a birthday cake for Jesus:  we stood in a circle and sang "Happy Birthday to You," and had some birthday cake, some pecan pie, and some apple pie too.  There were lots of candies and chocolates, especially after Daddy's gift of Crunchie bars to Mommy.  There were some fun gifts this morning.

And Mommy made some wassail as well.   Here we came, a wassailing!  Seriously, it was delicious.  We exchanged some more gifts, and simply because Nana heard Donald Trump was in "Home Alone 2," we plugged in that Christmas movie, and watched it through the end, laughing all the way.  The end is rather painful to watch in some ways.  Okay, a lot of ways.

Anyway, it was very nice to have everyone over.  And soon enough, they were on their way to their own homes, leaving the three of us to clean up a bit, and play some of our new toys.  

It was a merry little Christmas.  Madison and Daddy went to bed a little later, getting caught up with video games and fun.  Tomorrow, we'll continue that fun - and throughout the week.  Daddy has a lot of writing to do this week, but we'll make sure we have time together as a family as well.