12.24.09: First Christmas eve

In my family, Christmas is really held Christmas Eve - not exactly sure where that started from, but that is the way it has always been. Brant's family always celebrated Christmas on Christmas. It actually worked out really well when everyone was located in Seattle as we got to celebrate with both families on 'their' Christmas. Brant and I aren't exactly sure how we are going to handle Christmas once the kids get bigger but this year they didn't understand what is going on so we decided we could postpone any establishment of traditions until next Christmas. Since all of Brant's family was here for the holidays we decided to spread the festivities from Christmas eve until the new year when my family was arriving - why not celebrate more?

We skyped with my sister and Rob on Christmas eve while they were in Houston. This is a picture of the girls looking at the computer waiting for their Uncle and Aunt to talk to them....seems like they know what is about to happen when the computer gets put on the floor. Yay skype!


(left to right: fiona, daphne, stella)

Then we had all the Uncles, Aunt and Aunts-to-be pose with the girls. (Melissa/Daphne, Evan/Rob/Kelly, Ragan/Fiona, Christina/Stella)


Santa brought each girl a stuffed animal that they opened with mommy. Thoughtfully, Santa wrapped these presents in tissue paper so the girls could more easily open it. Stella was definitely into pulling the paper off to find her pig. Fiona sure loved the alligator and immediately started chewing on its nose. Daphne wasn't so sure about the whole thing but seemed to like her aardvark.