Christmas Eve Morning

We arrived home from the Credles late on the 22nd. We spent the 23rd unpacking and resting up (and riding around looking at Christmas lights that night), and on the 24th we woke up ready for some more Christmas festivities.

Anabella and Daniel were so excited about leaving cookies and carrots for Santa, we actually prepared our Santa plate just after breakfast.  We wanted to be prepared just in case they fell asleep on the way from the Christmas Eve party later that night. (ha! to think this would happen- we took their pjs and changed them before we left that night and everything- they were so wired- it was 10pm before they were asleep that night.....falling asleep on the way home....silly mommy!)

Poor Santa, that's all I have to say. Look at this pitiful plate of cookies they prepared for him:

The leftovers from the bag of chocolate chip cookies we had in a bag (car food) to take as a snack for our road trip to the Credles. 

They saw nothing wrong with this- they still taste good- hey, cookies are cookies, who cares if they're a bit crumbly, right?! 

Carrots for the reindeer- they weren't about to forget those! 

We did eventually throw these crumbled cookies out and left Santa some real cookies later that night.  The water from the baby carrots kinda made the cookie pieces soggy. Rudolph and the others could deal with the carrots that sat all day, but Santa, we looked out for him.

Next up....following breakfast and making sure we were all set for Santa (sorta)....it was time for some presents!

This was always what Allie and I did as kids. Opened our gifts to one another on Christmas Eve, then Santa gifts on Christmas morning.

Continuing with the tradition, Allie and I exchanged later that day before the Christmas Eve party, as did the cousins.

They each had two gifts to give the other.

Anabella's first gift was a Hello Kitty bracelet & Hello Kitty tattoos.

Daniel's was a Spiderman dartboard and Avengers notebook.

They were both very pleased with what the other had picked out. 

Next, they opened their big gift. Daniel knows Anabella likes anything "Frozen" so he got her an Olaf snowcone maker. 

She loved it!

Sol wondered if he'd be getting a taste of a snowcone.

I think someone else was pretty excited about it too- here he is helping to add the carrot nose.

Anabella helped wrap Daniel's big gift and addressed the gift tag and added the bow. 

Anabella's gift that she picked for Daniel: knowing that he loves superheroes, she got him an Incredible Hulk (about the only superhero he doesn't have yet) that has removable parts....for a boy who likes to take everything apart and put it back together, it was the perfect gift! 

Huggy huggy! 

Bet you can't guess who's curled up under this blanket?
(spoiler alert: Solomon)

Daniel LOVED his gift.  

In fact, he loved it so much, he wasn't interested in opening anything else. Just wanted to play with that. 

This girl is a hugger!! 

Daddy picked out some gifts for the kids at his school book fair, so these next few pictures are gifts he picked out. Mo Willems is one of our favorite authors, and we got two new books to add to our collection- The Pigeon Takes a Bath and The Pigeon Gets a Doughnut. 

This was a joint gift, but Daniel was so busy taking apart his new superheroes, he let Belle open it- a new puzzle. An 84 piecer....we'll definitely be working on this one together! 

He did take a break from his playing to open this gift- a new pair of Spiderman pjs!
Belle got a MinnieMouse gown.  

Daniel saw the Lego movie in the theatre with Daddy a few months ago and loved it. So Daddy picked a Lego movie book for him.

A Sophia board game for Belle

Spiderman boxing gloves for Dan

A Melissa & Doug jewelry box kit that she could paint herself.

The annual tree ornament for the trees in their room....Daniel got a Spiderman bulb and Anabella got a Frozen bulb.

Knowing his girl likes all things pink, Daddy's choice for Anabella's special book was Pinkilicous.  And, it's an I can Read...so I bet she'll be reading it herself before long! 

This Sophia game was fun- we played it twice that morning, both taking turns as "Sophia" and getting a turn wearing the charm bracelet- Sophia had to spin to see how many doors she could open in the castle to find the missing charms for her bracelet- only if you didn't find it within those tries, you could have a few more. All good games have bendable rules. 

Meanwhile, Daniel was still pretty amused by the toy Belle picked for him. 

She couldn't wait to paint this, so after lunch we let go her at it.

Look at that purple glitter border she added- our little artist. 

After a full morning/early afternoon of lounging around the house and playing, we got ready for our annual Vaught Christmas Eve celebration in Front Royal and left for that about 3pm.  More on that in the next post.....