'Twas the night before Christmas
and all through the house
lots of creatures were stirring -
it was too noisy for a mouse!
What a fun and busy Christmas we had! Grandma, Grandpa, and Colin Mac were all able to come up from San Diego. The girls love having everyone in town!
On Christmas Eve, like I said, we had quite the busy house.
Cailyn wore her Santa hat and loved it (see the video I posted a few days ago.)
We had fun playing Christmas carols with chimes (Rylee didn't have much sense of rhythm or timing, but she sure was enthusiastic about hitting her chime!)
In addition to all of the McNamara family being here, Uncle Steve and Aunt Annette,
as well as Grandma Clawson joined us for dinner and the evening's festivities.
After our yummy Mexican dinner, we had cakes from Dippidee - a family favorite!
Then the girls all opened and put on their matching jammies, although they were too wound up to sit together for a picture, so Cailyn will serve as the pajama model.
Grandma made everyone matching Christmas pillow cases. We thought it would be fun to try to get all three girls to sit in their case for a picture. We got Cailyn to cooperate
but then Rylee just wanted to jump around and hide in her pillow case.
So that was about it for the pictures that night, but everyone had a good time. Grandpa told the Christmas story and used the little Fisher Price nativity for props. Cailyn picked up all the pieces of the nativity and said "Woof! Woof!" - everything is a dog to her these days.
Rylee slept in until 10:45 on Christmas morning...I would love to keep that as a Christmas tradition, but somehow I don't think there will be many more years of that.
Rylee's requests from Santa were:
1. A really big pink purse with candy and a really big sucker
2. Animals - all of them!
I didn't get any pictures of the animals because I was too busy videoing the ordeal. But this is the bag they were in - that's about as good as I can do for those!
This is her pink purse...
...and this is her really big sucker; it's shaped like a Christmas tree.
Rylee also got a make-up kit which I made from a bunch of chapstick and my empty make-up containers - I came up with this idea in hopes of keeping Rylee out of my make-up when I'm trying to get ready, and so far it's seemed to do the trick! She loves it and carries it everywhere.
Cailyn mostly got hand-me-down gifts; we have so many baby toys that had been put away and figured she wouldn't know the difference anyway! This little penguin was one of the few new gifts she got from Grandma and Grandpa Mac.
And don't worry, the girls both got PLENTY of candy that morning!
(This little doll is another of Cailyn's new presents from Grandma Karen and Grandpa Dave)
The Bergs showed up at the end of the presents - they had opened their own gifts at their house that morning and then came over. Ava had not wanted to stay in her jammies, so there's no pictures of them all matching on Christmas morning either. Oh well! You can see the Snow White and Cinderella dolls that the big girls got here.
Rylee decided that she wanted to give Cailyn a balloon for Christmas. I decided to have Cailyn give Rylee and Ava balloons, too. I had visions of pictures with the girls sitting and holding their balloons, but didn't really even attempt to set that one up! So this is the substitue picture:
Cailyn does pretty well walking with her (old) gift from Santa!
Rylee chose this shirt out for my Christmas present and Cailyn is wearing the outfit from Grandma Karen and Grandpa Dave
Rylee refused to get out of her jammies all day (yet another example of how she and Ava are different!) This picture of our sassy little princess cracks me up!
Rylee and Ava had fun playing with their princess crowns, wands and rings on the stairs.
Cailyn saw them and wanted to join the fun.
Whe she wasn't chasing the big girls, Cailyn was chasing the dogs. She snuggled with Tilly for a while
and later watched the dogs take care of business outside.
Cailyn loves this little microphone! It flashes different colors and sings Disney songs.
Christmas evening, Grandma read "The Gingerbread Baby" with the girls
and then put the puzzle of the story together.
Cailyn got to play with the box.
Grandpa got to read to all his girls, too! (And yes, Rylee did go straight from one pair of jammies to another...and we DID manage to get pictures of these matching jammies!)
So that's how our Christmas went. And here are a few final pictures:
The Bergs
Grandma and Grandpa Mac with their girls
And our family
"Give your sister a hug!"
Will they ever stop taking pictures?
On Christmas Eve, like I said, we had quite the busy house.
We had fun playing Christmas carols with chimes (Rylee didn't have much sense of rhythm or timing, but she sure was enthusiastic about hitting her chime!)
After our yummy Mexican dinner, we had cakes from Dippidee - a family favorite!
Then the girls all opened and put on their matching jammies, although they were too wound up to sit together for a picture, so Cailyn will serve as the pajama model.
Grandma made everyone matching Christmas pillow cases. We thought it would be fun to try to get all three girls to sit in their case for a picture. We got Cailyn to cooperate
but then Rylee just wanted to jump around and hide in her pillow case.
So that was about it for the pictures that night, but everyone had a good time. Grandpa told the Christmas story and used the little Fisher Price nativity for props. Cailyn picked up all the pieces of the nativity and said "Woof! Woof!" - everything is a dog to her these days.
This is her pink purse...
...and this is her really big sucker; it's shaped like a Christmas tree.
Rylee also got a make-up kit which I made from a bunch of chapstick and my empty make-up containers - I came up with this idea in hopes of keeping Rylee out of my make-up when I'm trying to get ready, and so far it's seemed to do the trick! She loves it and carries it everywhere.
Cailyn mostly got hand-me-down gifts; we have so many baby toys that had been put away and figured she wouldn't know the difference anyway! This little penguin was one of the few new gifts she got from Grandma and Grandpa Mac.
(This little doll is another of Cailyn's new presents from Grandma Karen and Grandpa Dave)
The Bergs showed up at the end of the presents - they had opened their own gifts at their house that morning and then came over. Ava had not wanted to stay in her jammies, so there's no pictures of them all matching on Christmas morning either. Oh well! You can see the Snow White and Cinderella dolls that the big girls got here.
Rylee decided that she wanted to give Cailyn a balloon for Christmas. I decided to have Cailyn give Rylee and Ava balloons, too. I had visions of pictures with the girls sitting and holding their balloons, but didn't really even attempt to set that one up! So this is the substitue picture:
Cailyn does pretty well walking with her (old) gift from Santa!
Rylee chose this shirt out for my Christmas present and Cailyn is wearing the outfit from Grandma Karen and Grandpa Dave
Rylee refused to get out of her jammies all day (yet another example of how she and Ava are different!) This picture of our sassy little princess cracks me up!
Rylee and Ava had fun playing with their princess crowns, wands and rings on the stairs.
Cailyn saw them and wanted to join the fun.
Whe she wasn't chasing the big girls, Cailyn was chasing the dogs. She snuggled with Tilly for a while
and later watched the dogs take care of business outside.
Cailyn loves this little microphone! It flashes different colors and sings Disney songs.
Christmas evening, Grandma read "The Gingerbread Baby" with the girls
and then put the puzzle of the story together.
So that's how our Christmas went. And here are a few final pictures:
And our family
