Each year, we make a birthday cake for baby Jesus on December 23rd or 24th, and then we have it on Christmas day. This year, I made an eggnog cake, and we also cut out nativity cookies using our Nativity cookie cutter set. Then the girls decorated them to place on the cake the next day!
Caroline decorated this Mary cookie...
We headed to Christmas Eve Mass... there is a children's "pageant" before the 4:00 and 5:30 Christmas Eve Masses, and the older two participated in it as an angel and a sheep.
Here are all three girls in front of our church's outdoor nativity display.
Lucy checks out the baby Jesus...
This is inside the church by one of the Christmas trees at the front. I couldn't get Lucy to look at the camera... she is the most difficult to photograph toddler I have had!
Somebody offered to take one of all of us (of course, Lucy will look at other people for photos... I guess I am just too boring for her to pay attention to, ha!).
And this was the best shot I got of all three in front of our tree at home... pretty pitiful, huh? I didn't push the issue... maybe next year they'll all look at the same time...
But here is a pretty one of just Caroline and Cici.
This is pretty much how the rest of them looked...
I just loved Lucy's Christmas dress... absolutely adorable Gymboree outfit that her Gran found at a consignment sale for her! She's going to have to wear it in other non-Christmas times too just to get a chance to wear it more often!
After dinner, we let the girls open one gift - always something they can use that night, like pajamas or slippers - and snack on some Christmas goodies and eggnog. Caroline is holding up a plate of their gingerbread girls and few other treats.
I actually made Lucy a stocking this year... silver, made in the same style as the other two. She didn't seem to care last year that she had no stocking, but I figured I'd better make one now that she was 15 months old...
Cecilia and I picked out these pretty hand-rolled white taper candles one day while walking downtown when Caroline was at her ballet class. We replaced the Advent wreath candles with these at dinner time and burned them, along with our Christ candle, throughout the Christmas season.
A close-up of Lucy's stocking...
Cecilia joins in with the treats... Oh, and the mantel greenery is new this year. I like that it looks a bit more classy than just throwing random Christmas knick knacks up there.
And the opening begins...
Lucy got new pajamas, which she desperately needed, and the older girls got fun slipper socks.
Here is the tree with the gifts all under it... I don't know what possessed me to wait until Christmas eve to do practically all of the wrapping, but Chris was awesome and helped me to finish it all. Teething Lucy gave us a break and slept through the late-night wrapping party, waking only briefly, allowing us to be able to get it all taken care of - phew!
Christmas Morning!! Caroline got a stack of chapter books, mostly Vision saint books.
Cecilia got these cute dress-up mice.
Cecilia opens a gift from Aura Lee, my old college roommate, who is so sweet to send us gifts every year!
Caroline got the ballerina Calico Critter that she wanted.
You can see the cute slipper socks well in this picture... they have stuffed dogs sewn to them.
Lucy's big gift from us was the Fisher Price zoo. I normally hate toys that take batteries... I must be wearing down in my old age, ha. I listened to this one online and didn't mind it; the animals each make their sounds, and it plays a couple songs and such. It has lots of places to put the animals, and the bigger kids actually play with it as much as Lucy does, ha!
Cecilia was thrilled to get this horse and baby unicorn.
This was Lucy's favorite gift... an old purse of mine, filled with a small photo book, an old wallet that velcros shut filled with old credit cards, insurance cards, a Blockbuster card, etc. She loves to get into my purse and empty my wallet of all credit cards and money, ha, so I thought this would make a good alternative!
Caroline watches Daddy open clothes!
Lucy empties the wallet. Yes, those are actual Discover cards she has... expired and with the strip scratched off.
Chris's grandfather always sends money for gifts, so we bought the girls this pioneer covered wagon they'd been eyeing in the Magic Cabin catalog. Unfortunately, the horses that are pictured with it have been discontinued. Too bad, since they are super cute and fit well with it... but, I figured out the approximate size and then found these nice wooden horses elsewhere (I couldn't find the other one I bought online any more). And they do fit perfectly!
Lucy got a new baby doll, her first very own baby. I got it from Nova Naturals, which is an online toy store I love. They have awesome customer service. Most of their stuff is too expensive for us to buy often, unfortunately, but this baby doll was just right! We call it "Green Baby."
And, as usual, my babies quickly lose interest in the nice toys I select for them and go on to play with boxes and want things that belong to big sisters! Green baby does get pushed around in the doll stroller frequently now, though!
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