Christmas 2010 Wrap-up

We had a wonderful Christmas! We were blessed in so many ways - having Elena with us period, having both of our girls healthy at the moment and on the mend, finding out that Elena hadn't relapsed, being able to spend Christmas together at home, getting to spend time with family, finding multiple gifts, goodies, and envelopes stuffed with help on our doorstep throughout the days leading up to Christmas, etc. (We don't even know who to thank - but we want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!) We have felt the love of the Lord and His guiding hand in our lives.

After all the turmoil and uncertainty of the previous weeks, Christmas Eve was a joyous, contented day. We spent the night celebrating with my family who came into town to be with us for Christmas, since we couldn't travel with Elena anywhere. We loved watching the magic as our girls reveled and anticipated. This year, we started a new tradition that really got Elena's mind spinning with Christmas magic. My mom gave us a little stuffed elf, named Charlie. We explained to Elena that Charlie was Santa's special helper who was sent to our house by Santa to watch Elena and Lily to see if they were being good girls - the only stipulation was that they couldn't touch Charlie or else his magic would go away and he'd have to go back to the North Pole. Every morning, they woke to find Charlie in a different spot in the house keeping an eye on them. And sometimes Charlie could be found doing mischievous things, like sitting in the candy bowl, etc. On Christmas Eve, Eric had a ball sneakily relocating Charlie about every 30 seconds and pretending to be flabbergasted with Elena at Charlie's antics. It was really fun to watch!

Christmas morning, we awoke to a very long row of stockings and to presents bursting out from under the tree. The pictures will do a nice job telling the rest of the story... :)

Long row of stockings

A very packed under the tree

Elena checking to see if Santa had his milk and cookies. He did - yummy grasshopper cookies, too. :)

Our Christmas Eve pajamas, 2010 edition

Opening stockings

My dad in his traditional role, passing out the gifts

Lily got some nice gifts, but she was most excited about chewing on the fruit snacks packages and Elena's Tic-Tacs. :) She was so funny - she'd crawl around and say, "Hoo-Hoo!" and "Oh!" (think super high pitched ) and hold them up for us to see.

Elena loved this "twirly" skirt from my grandma and she also got two other princess dresses and "the cutest sweater ever" ;)....

...which she proceeded to layer on top of each other. She wanted to wear them all and wouldn't take anything off. :)

Elena and Aunt Channie

Elena with one of her gifts from Santa

Eric had a "BYU Christmas" - he got BYU pajamas, beanie, shirt, and another flag for the car.

Elena and me with the present she and Lily got for me. ;)

My sister, Samantha, and her husband battle over whether Coke or Pepsi is best and got these funny t-shirts for their respective "teams".

This moment sure made us all laugh. My new little niece, McKenzie, did not like getting her diaper changed. Lily is very in love with and interested in her little cousin (and babies in general - she is fascinated by them) and was concerned when she saw McKenzie crying. She crawled right over and sat patiently by my dad's leg watching for a minute and then, restraining her usual exuberance that leads her to try to poke out an eye, she gently reached out and held McKenzie's little hand. It was so sweet to see Lily reaching out to a howling McKenzie. :)

We spent the rest of the day relaxing, enjoying our presents, eating too much food, taking naps, and playing lots of games. Thanks everyone for sacrificing to come and be with us! We had a great time!