Christmas Day 2011

Surprisingly, Sam slept in on Christmas morning! Usually, she is up by at least 7 am every morning, but with all of the excitement of our Christmas Eve party, she stayed in bed until 8 am on Christmas morning. That was nice because it gave Steve and myself a little bit of time to get the coffee going and breakfast started. (I wanted the girls to eat breakfast before opening gifts -- I know, it seems cruel, but it went over just fine. While I knew that Sam could wait to have her breakfast until all of the gifts were opened, I knew that Sophia would be starving and not happy at all).

On Christmas morning, all of the stockings (even the cats') were hung by the chimney with care:

And presents around the tree:

My girls waiting to do stockings:

Sophia with her stocking:

Sam got a slinky in her stocking:

Nemo fruit snacks:

"Buddy" from Dinosaur Train:

The look on my face is a little bit bizarre here, but I was showing Samantha that Santa brought Sophia her own piggy bank (one of the things that Sam asked Santa to bring this year -- "a piggy bank for Sophia."):

Posing later with her new piggy bank:

And Santa brought Sam exactly what she asked for, a Baby Alive doll:

Sophia was pretty happy about the bunny hat from Santa (I call her "Bunny" a lot):

In the afternoon, we celebrated the holiday with my family at our house. We also celebrated my brother's birthday (which is the day after Christmas). Sam begged Uncle Jake to let her help blow out the candles. He obliged, of course.

A birthday kiss for Uncle Jake:

Then the girls set to work opening gifts from my family.

Sam was tired because she missed her nap:

But Sophia was rested and ready:

Sophia (and Sam) were pretty excited about Sophia's new musical table:

And Sophia's new activity block:

It was a wonderful holiday season for us. We got to spend time with both sides of our families, and I have SO enjoyed building traditions with the girls this year. I've also taken a few moments to look back on our time LAST year and how different our lives were then; we had no idea if we were having a boy or a girl then -- just that the little one would be joining our lives in two short months. Sam was too little to understand the magic of Santa Claus then, but this year, it was so special to watch her eyes light in amazement and wonder. Here's to another great year of memory-making!