The one about Christmas

Teresa was so into Christmas this year. She still didn't quite get everything about it, of course, but she thought all the preparations and Santa stuff, etc, were so great. She was actually really excited about Santa each time we went to see him, although she still got really timid once she was actually near him. It was so cute the way she would barely whisper what she wanted to him. (She asked for a baby doll each time, but, sadly, he didn't come through this year).

The children all got to pick one gift to open on Christmas Eve. T opened a little stuffed cat. Brigit brought a cute little stuffed kitty with her from home, and Teresa just thought it was the best thing she had ever seen. She was always begging to hold Brigit's kitty, and B was always so generous with letting her. But as soon as T had to give her back, she would ask to hold it again, she just really, really loved it. So I hopped on Amazon and was able to find the same exact cat - and it just happened to arrive on Christmas Eve, just a few minutes before present time!

Opening it up...

I think she liked it ;)

The girls with their kitties - not T's best picture :)

Oh, she was so thrilled about it. Ironically, the tag of the kitty says its name is Pepper, just like our poor kitty we recently re-homed!

Nora's first Christmas reactions were kind of a bummer, she wasn't really that interested in opening presents, or the wrapping paper, or even what was inside, at first.

She would pretty much just tear off one little strip of paper, like in the picture below, and then would just not be that interested in finishing it off.

She did really love Aoife's ball pit though!

She did come around eventually, and really got into her stocking - I think it helped that it was mostly full of baby snacks.

Nora helped T open her very own laptop:

T enjoying some of her presents:

Strutting her stuff...

And some more Christmas randoms:

The ball pit really was such a huge hit with all the kids. It's definitely in the running for one of Nora's first birthday presents.

Teresa was also so interested in all the Cars toys that Colin got. I'm super mad that my little camera went missing while we were there because I had some awesome videos of the car racing action. Colin got an awesome race track with some Cars cars that you can charge up, and T just thought it was awesome. When they would start racing she would say "Oh my goodness! What's happening" over and over, and it was really funny. The Smith kids were so good to let T play with all their awesome Christmas presents too. Too bad those pictures will never be seen :(.

After all the present festivities we got to go to church and enjoy a beautiful Christmas program. Afterwards we had a little cousins/Granny photo shoot. (Nora was barely able to stay awake through church, so she went straight to bed as soon as we got home and missed all the pictures).

Aoife, Brigit, Liam, Colin, Teresa, and Granny:

And then some of Granny and the T:

And, sadly, all the rest of the Christmas pictures were on my camera. Marc did make a delicious turkey, and Rob made some delicious potatoes, and my Dad made his delicious stuffing-that-I- always-thought-was-a-special-family-recipe-but-really-turned-out-to-be-from-Better-Homes-and-Gardens. (Don't think I wasn't crushed when I found that one out). We all did our best to enjoy Christmas dinner despite the fact that half of us were barely over the stomach flu and the other half would soon be enjoying that particular Christmas blessing...

In more recent news, Nora turns ELEVEN months old tomorrow!

Do you know what that means?!?!?

It means I really can't use the 'I just had a baby' excuse for why my house is a mess/I'm so tired all the time/none of my clothes fit/etc anymore. Bummer.