Merry Christmas! I was awakened by the sound of little footsteps around 5:30 am! I got to the living room to find that Taylor and Molly had sorted all the presents into piles by name. Excited as they were they agreed to put them all back so that Morgan would be able to see them under the tree as Santa had intended. Then
I went back to bed! Two hours later a little face asked if I was going to be getting up soon ; ) I had to wake Lacey, as you can tell by her hesitation , as her two perky sisters insist she open presents.
Morgan got a box full of Max and Ruby books, a shirt, and a toy. She had to pause a moment to quickly flip through her new books.
Lacey got the hang of it but was still willing to take the ever-ready help from her big sisters.
One of the boxes was To: Fancy Girls. It contained
CD's (which went with the CD player with working microphones that came later that day) dress-up shoes, dress-up clothes, pretend microphones and a pretend head-set microphone like singers wear. Or as my husband commented, "McDonald's employees"
Lacey in her pretty dress with one of her new babies. It was really a great Christmas. We all scaled back this year and it was so nice. There weren't tons of gifts and the girls really were happy and grateful for everything they received. After opening Santa's gifts, Grandpa Gene and Grandma Sue arrived and we had brunch with them while we watched some of the Disney parade. We got dressed and cleaned up and headed to Grandma Dar and Grandpa Ed's house. We had some more presents there and the girls had a good time playing with their cousins. After an early dinner, the kids watched a movie while the adults visited. On Friday, we went to Grandma Sue's house and had dinner there with Grandpa Gene's family. Taylor and Carter were connected at the hip most of the night (he's 4 and just thinks Taylor is the coolest~~~poor kid!). A few more gifts arrived (in a red bag on the front porch!) and then Gene played his guitar and the kids danced or played their own instruments along with him. Very cute! The best present of all was being with family and friends.
Christmas Eve! The girls and I (while Lacey was napping) made a snowman! They decided to name him "Frosty"~original! I did most of the heavy lifting but they used the snowman parts to make him come to life!
We tried to go to church. Tried. Like my sister said, we were in a church. It was sooooo crowded and the kids couldn't see a thing so it was not worth staying for. Better luck next year! Besides we still had a busy night ahead of us!
We had to make cookies for Santa! 
We tried a group picture in front of the tree, Lacey wasn't much interested! We kept the TV off all evening (which sad as it is, is pretty much always on after dinner) and instead listened to Chistmas carols, the kids danced in the living room while they waited for the cookies to cool enough to decorate, and we watched home videos of our family outings. It was a quiet, peaceful evening.
Taylor and Molly each chose a cookie to leave for Santa and then we placed the cookies and milk near the tree for Santa to find. All were in bed and asleep by 9 pm!
