Christmas Day

Better late than never, right?  We've been so beautifully busy doing fun family things, so this is the first chance I've had to update the blog on all of our holiday events.  Unfortunately, I'll have to post a few things out of order.  Mainly, I'll just have to post about Christmas Eve on another day, thanks to technical difficulties with my camera.  Oh well!  On to Christmas day!

But first...a peek at late Christmas Eve night:

My Santa job was done....so pretty!!

Sylvain's Santa job was not done.  And it was complicated and noisy.

Santa's elves were NOT helpful, and Margot's car was NOT wrapped in time.  Papa tried to finish it in the morning, but it included a lot of banging, which required her immediate attention, so there was no big "TA DA" moment when she saw her big gift.  In fact, it was the first thing she saw and she waited patiently for him to finish, then she spent the rest of the morning sitting in her car, ignoring every other wrapped present under the tree! 

Sylvia was the first to wake up at an amazing 7:45 AM!!  We slept IN on Christmas morning!  Sweet baby Jesus, it was wonderful.  So we were all in a really good mood.  I snapped a few pics of Sylvia before Margot woke up, then the present-fest commenced! (I know I should put most of these pics in a cute collage or something, but I'm short on time, so just scroll and enjoy - sorry!)

She slept with her new unicorn, which I fear may replace her beloved dou dou bunnies.

New Ninja Turtle, Michelangelo, meets old Ninja Turtle, Leonardo.

One good gift before she saw the car.

Bathtub letters!  Hooray!

The Ninja Turtle truck.  It's called "The Shellraiser."  *sigh*

Beep Beep!

Coming through!

Sophia dress!  She wore it all morning.

Margot left her car when she saw the wooden stir fry vegetables.

She force fed Papa some shrimp.

Opening our gifts from France!

A set of games for Sylvain and Sylvia.

Some new books for Margot.

Assembling the Turtle Wagon after breakfast.

Our morning was delightful and everyone was very happy with their gifts.  After a little play time, we packed up and headed to my Dad's house for another Christmas!  What a lucky bunch we are!

Lala Loopsy everything from Santa at Grandpa's house!

She was just happy to eat snacks all day!

My Dad built Margot this awesome board with gadgets and locks and knobs and a door to hide things!  She LOVES it!

Mamie Brigitte met us for lunch at Dad's house and showered the girls with MORE gifts.  She is SUPER smart and gave Sylvia a set of Cinderella dresses to go with the dolls she already has, but she also gave her a ballerina Barbie and some tutus to go with it.  We're in Barbie doll heaven at our house!  Margot received more great French books (can't have too many!) and we've been reading them constantly. 

After lunch, we hightailed it to my Mom's house with enough time to squeeze in some naps, thank goodness!  We opened gifts, had more great food, and by 7:00 my girls were SPENT (and so was I).  

I only got one good present opening picture, because Margot was a fussy, crying MESS, poor baby!

Just as the real party was getting started (folks from all sides of the family eventually end their day at Mom's house for games and beverages and merriment), the Fasciotto party had to make an exit.  There's only so much excitement that two little girls can take before they start to act like demons.  We made it home at a reasonable time and both girls practically put themselves to bed without a fight! 

I had time to survey the damage of three rounds of Christmas in one day, and in order to stay as organized as possible, I put all of their gifts back under the tree for them to rediscover in the morning.  I was also hoping that seeing everything at once would help them decide what to play with!

So, Christmas was a wonderful whirlwind of a day and I was constantly reminded of how blessed and loved we are by our family and friends.  I've always loved Christmas and I used to think it was the most magical day of the year, but I was wrong.  When you have two tiny kids, the day AFTER Christmas is the most magical.  We had no where to be and there was only one rule: put your toys back under the tree before you start playing with something else!  We stayed in our pajamas and we played played played played PLAYED all day long.  I didn't open my computer or stare at my phone.  Sylvain and I spent most of our day on the floor, building things or playing games, or pretending to do whatever the heck they wanted to do.  We ate leftovers all day, took GIGANTIC naps, sang every Christmas song we know.....it was remarkable.   I hope we are always so lucky as to have this special extra family day!

Up next: Christmas Eve and/or our seventh wedding anniversary trip to Gatlingburg WITH children, for the first time ever.  Super fun.  Lots to post!