Christmas Eve and Day 2011

Christmas Eve

Aunt Cori, Uncle Adam, Lila and Oma came over for dinner and presents. Oma brought pork and Dominican beans for dinner. We provided the rice and Cori and Adam brought some plantains to fry. Yum!

Cousins playing

Aunt Cori and Uncle Adam in front of the "fire"

Milk and cookies for Santa

Waiting

Santa must have visited!

Christmas morning the girls opened presents here then we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's where we had brunch and more presents with Uncle Rob, Aunt Khristy and Audrey.

V checking out the presents

Little Miss Princess stopped opening long enough for a picture

Playing with Audrey's new toys at Grandma and Grandpa's

Welcome Pietrich

Santa sent an Elf on the Shelf to spend the last week before Christmas with us. Sofia named him Pietrich. He spent a few days hanging around in the kitchen then moved to the living room. The last day he must have felt pretty comfortable because he turned some pictures upside down!

In other news, though V is a mostly happy baby, there are moments of baby fits and crying. Here's a picture of one.

Sofia's Christmas Program

Sofia's daycare started an annual Christmas Program this year. Her class sang Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Sofia sang "loud and proud"

Christmas Day

It looks like Santa visited.

He brought a water bottle with Sofia's name spelled correctly!

Go Santa!

Did he leave anything in the chimney?

We headed to Aunt Cori and Uncle Adam's for breakfast.

Silly picture crashers. :)

Starting early.

Sofia loved her presents!

Later in the day we headed to Great Gramma's for dinner.

Great Gramma, Great Aunt Donna and Oma finished up things in the kitchen.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa's house eating dinner and opening our first round of gifts.

After returning home, we finished preparing for Santa's visit.

Family Pictures

Thanksgiving evening, Sofia helped me decorate our tree.
The next day we attempted a family picture setting on our own (with the camera remote). These are some of our favorites:

Christmas Day

Looks like Santa came!
Lucy enjoying a short trip outside before the festivities began.
Santa ate almost a complete plate full of cookies!
Sofia loves her new camera! Great job, Santa!
Sofia and Lucy playing with Sofia's new toy hamster.
What's better than bowling?
Sofia had to help EVERYONE open their presents.
Aunt Cori, Uncle Adam and Dixie got Sofia another perfect gift - the Disney princess dress-up set!

The gang (minus Uncle Rob, Aunt Khristy and Audrey who left early).
After everyone left, it was time to play in the snow!
Daddy's first snowman ever!
After the snowman moved to a shadier home, it was time to play with Lucy.
Merry Christmas!