Christmas Morning

Well, first, I found that picture from Christmas Eve that the computer ate... okay, so Chris actually found it in our backed up files. And now on to the Christmas Morning stuff, as advertised in the title of this post!

The presents awaiting discovery by the littles

Cecilia's stocking (I made both stockings last year)

Caroline's stocking

Before we went out to the tree, we went into the den and found baby Jesus lying in the manger, on top of the soft straw bed that we prepared for Him all Advent!

When we went out to the living room after Daddy got the camera ready, Cecilia didn't really know what to do, this only being her second Christmas, and her only being 23 months old. I showed her the little trike that was there for her - a neat little Radio Flyer metal trike I'd picked up cheaply at a consignment sale - but she was less than enthused. So I had her help me put baby Jesus in our nativity scene, which was then promptly returned to the top of the curio cabinet and Cecilia was distracted with a present. She is really very captivated by the breakable nativity scene! if you click on the above photo, you may actually be able to see where the horn tip of the cow is broken off because of her over-eagerness...

Caroline went straight for this castle that was out for her - and then ran off to the den to get some of her wooden saints so they could live in the castle! I suggested she get a few dollhouse furniture items as well, and she was very much ready to just play with this the rest of the morning! We had to encourage her to open her other presents!

I was excited to get her this castle... I had thought we'd get it for her birthday in a few months. But then we received money from great-grandparents who in the past have bought gifts themselves rather than sending money, so we had to shuffle around the gifts we'd already purchased and make more purchases, and we ended up being able to go ahead and get the castle. I almost couldn't find it... they were all sold out on each website I looked at other than the ones selling it at and above retail price ($100 and more!). I got really lucky in finding this one being sold new in its original shrink-wrapping by a private seller, just about a week before Christmas!

It opens up and has lots of rooms in it... I have been keeping an eye on this item for over a year as a great gift idea for the girls. It was a hit with Cecilia, too!

Caroline got some little dollhouse minatures in one of her wrapped gifts... it included appliances and other housekeeping items, like a sewing machine, a vacuum cleaner, and an ironing board. She loves making her saints, fairies, and Calico Critters "keep their castle clean!"

Cecilia got a huge wooden block set - the real, solid wood blocks like Kindergarten classrooms used to have (do any of them still have them, or are they in preschools too?). Yay for Tuesday Morning - I love that store! I got this set there months ago and saved it for Christmas.

The girls have used the blocks so far to build things for their little dolls and saints and such to play on. And Cecilia likes knocking them down, of course.

The girls gave Daddy a digital photo frame for his office. He'd been saying for a couple years how he'd like to have one.

Caroline got a geometric puzzle... more challenging than the other puzzles she has, and I thought it'd be a good homeschooling manipulative.

Cecilia's hit gift was this nursing stuffed cat. It has magnets in it as well as in the kittens, so they really latch on like they are nursing! They also stick to the storm door, Cecilia has figured out. my brother Tim, upon noticing this on Cecilia's wish list (after it'd been on Caroline's list for a few years), said, "Give it up, Erin - nobody's going to buy you that magnetic nipple cat!" Now I can't stop calling it that, and Caroline called it the "nipple cat" the other day - oops.

Cecilia wanted to be fair, so after the kittens had nursed awhile, she nursed the mother cat herself.

The other big gift was this wooden Noah's ark. We found this gently used on eBay for a steal! You would not believe how many hours I had searched online for good-quality Noah's ark toys... I thought I'd seen them all and new all the brands and ones that were under $100... and I was set to settle for one that was smaller than I would have liked, but then Chris suggested checking eBay (which I had in the past, but not recently)... and this one came up. It is one I'd never seen before... but it is huge and durable, and the price was right! That link is to a website that has it listed pretty cheap for a new one (compared to some of the other places listing it!!!), but it's out of stock there. I think we really lucked out finding this one on eBay when we did! We made this be a joint gift for both girls from Papa.

The girls played with this, the castle, and the nursing cat all morning long!

Here are the contents of the stockings... new Color Wonder markers, little notepads, a few chocolate coins, some Annie's fruit snacks, a Five Little Monkeys playset for Cecilia, a dollhouse cat and dog for Caroline (and a Slinky, which she's been asking for for ages, and of course has not even played with it now). Caroline also got a peppermint bark bar from Trader Joe's, and Cecilia got a board book.

Great Grandaddy and Henny sent money for gifts, and I made an impromptu trip to Target to shop for boots. I was excited to find boots that almost matched, along with some cute matching shirts. Caroline loves to match Cecilia (I don't think Cecilia cares one way or the other!), so she was excited to wear these on Christmas Day to go to Gramma's house that afternoon... which will be covered in the next post!