I say it every year, and every year I mean it. This was the best Christmas ever.
Buggy woke up a few times during the night on Christmas Eve, so when she woke up on Christmas morning, we heard Santa's sleigh bells jingle and he must have just finished filling the girls stockings when we were all waking up! Bug was so excited to hear Santa downstairs! Once we were sure he was done, I headed downstairs with the girls, while Doug was armed and ready with the video camera. Bug's first words as her little legs made it down the stairs were, "Gasp! Trains!! I looove them!!" And she made a B-line right towards the ginormous train table in the middle of the living room. After that, she checked out her new, BIG dollhouse and her new kitchen. Finally, she headed over to the couch to check out the books, small toys and stocking stuffers that Santa had left. 45 minutes later, we realized that we should have fed her a little bit before we headed downstairs, because we caught her eating the rest of the Christmas cookies that we left out for Santa! For breakfast, Bug enjoyed a birthday cupcake to celebrate baby Jesus' birthday and a few more Christmas cookies.
For Lulu's first Christmas, she mostly enjoyed watching her big sister's reaction to all her new toys, and especially loved the new rattles and clutching toys that Santa had left for her.
About and hour later, Gigi, Babu and Poogie came over to check out the girls loot and eat Christmas lunch with us. Some of the girls most favorite wrapped gifts were a remote control car from Uncle Poogie, an interactive Elmo from Gigi and Babu a new baby doll with lots of accessories from Mommy and Daddy and a shopping card from Gigi and Babu. She would unwrap a few toys, then take them over to either Poogie or Babu and say, "Open it?!" They would put it together, and she would play with it for about 15 minutes. Then it was on to the next group of toys, and more gift unwrapping (which she thoroughly enjoyed!) Both girls took a nice nap (without much protest at all!) and the adults got to enjoy a little more food, wine and eggnog.
Tonight, as I was rocking Hailey to sleep and singing, "Away in the manger" and the happy birthday song to Jesus, she looked up at me and said, "I love Christmas. One more time? Again?"
One word to describe Christmas 2011...magical.
