My Girls: Twice The Fun: fa la la la la

Olivia and Violet loved Christmas this year. It was so much fun to feel their excitement. We had our own family Christmas on Thursday, December 23rd. We had a yummy supper - stuffed pork chops, balsamic sweet potatoes & apples, cooked carrots - that we ate on fancy dishes. The girls were so excited to open presents that they could hardly contain themselves. They took turns opening gifts and waited very patiently while sister opened. Olivia was pretty excited with each gift and held most of them over her head proudly after opening. Violet enjoyed watching Olivia open and often had to be reminded when it was her turn. Olivia on the other hand would say "It's Violet's turn, then my turn again" after opening each gift. Their favorite gifts had to do with coloring (of course). After they were done with presents, we let them open one thing. Violet opened her princess coloring lap desk and Olivia opened her Magna Doodle.

Christmas Eve morning, when the girls got up, I said that I heard some reindeer hooves on the roof during the night, so what would that mean? They yelled “SANTA!” and went running downstairs. They found a half-eaten cookie, an empty glass of milk, and stockings and presents from Santa. Olivia dove into her stocking and then ripped open her presents while Violet mainly sat and watched. Olivia was done opening everything while Violet had barely started. Their favorite stocking item was a sticker book. One of the most simple things! After Violet finally finished, we loaded into the truck and drove up to my parent’s farm. We let them pick something to bring with. Olivia picked her new sticker book while Violet picked her sticker book, stuffed Grinch, stuffed teddy bear and her blanket. Can you tell who will be the pack rat?

We arrived at my parent’s around noon. The girls were very excited to see their cousins Maya, Alex, Evan, Owen and Emma. They barely got in the door before running off to play. We squeezed in lunch and a nap before heading to church at 4:00. My sister Terri and her family met us at church, so our family was complete and all together. After church, we headed back to the farm for a delicious supper. It is tradition in our family to read the Christmas story before eating. Typically, my sister Terri reads the story, but this year she passed the tradition on to my 7-year-old niece Maya. Maya did a wonderful job reading the story (despite seven other kids having trouble sitting and listening) and it was bittersweet to see the tradition continue with the next generation. The six oldest cousins sat at a table together, so we had our first official separate “kids table.” Our family has grown so large that we can no longer fit into my parent’s big dining room so the kids table was set up in the living room. Thankfully, they were still within eyeshot because we heard a lot of giggling and goofing around, and at one point little Owen had climbed up onto the table to grab some food, but we made it through.

After supper, the kids rehearsed and performed their rendition of “Jingle Bells.” This involved shaking pom poms wildly and singing at the top of their lungs. Little Owen wanted to be involved so badly that he walked up to his older brother and yanked one of the pom poms right out of his hand, then proceeded to shake his little body and wave the pom pom along with the other kids. Then of course, we proceeded with the best part of the night: opening presents. The kids opened their presents from Granny & Grandpa one at a time and then we just let them go. It was a bit chaotic! There was wrapping paper, boxes and gifts flying everywhere. But oh, did they have fun! The girls received a toddler sized Ariel doll and Belle doll from Granny & Grandpa, complete with extra clothes and a hair brush. They were very excited!

It was so enjoyable to watch all of the cousins play together. Olivia and Violet are finally old enough to go off and play with their cousins without us around. There were a few wild moments – all of the kids running around the house, chasing each other and screaming; jumping on the mattress that Granny put on the floor – but overall they were very good and played together nicely. We all stayed overnight and spent time together on Christmas Day morning. Daddy took the girls outside and pushed them on the swing. He also convinced them to go sledding down the driveway. They each went down a few times before deciding that it was cold and they wanted to go back inside. The rest of the day was pretty relaxing!

On Sunday morning, December 26th, we went over to the Suchy farm. Olivia and Violet were very excited to see their other cousins. They were able to play for awhile, and Grandpa even let them fix his hair. We had a very delicious meal at noon, and then the girls went down for a nap. It is tradition to open presents one person at a time, so other people took turns opening their gifts while the girls were napping. By the time the girls woke up, we had only them and Chelsey left, so it worked out perfectly! Their favorite gift from Grandpa and Grandma was a little stuffed Olivia the pig (a cartoon they love). It was the first gift they opened, and they had to have Olivia by their side while they opened the rest. Toward the end of gift opening, Grandpa was not feeling so well, so we unfortunately didn’t have time to continue the tradition of putting our personalized ornaments on Grandma’s tree. Jill ended up bringing Grandpa into the ER, and found out that he had bacterial pneumonia. We felt bad for him that he had to deal with that on Christmas! We thought maybe the live minnow he swallowed earlier in the day had something to do with him not feeling well… (long story)…

We stayed overnight at the Suchy farm, and then Terri and Aaron gave me a ride home the next day. Jamie left on an ice fishing trip up to northern Minnesota with Joey, Luke and Nicholas. The girls stayed with Grandma, Grandpa and Chelsey until Jamie got back today. So I had a few days to myself at home to unpack, do laundry, run some errands, and scrapbook! It was very nice to have some down time after a busy weekend. However, I was very glad to welcome the girls back home tonight. I missed them!

All in all, we had a very enjoyable Christmas weekend. The girls are at such a great age – it was the simple things about Christmas that made them happy. They enjoyed seeing our Christmas lights on every night, visiting Santa, decorating the tree, baking cookies and just being with family. Sometimes I get caught up in the excitement of presents and other stuff, but to see the girls enjoy simple things and be able to tell us who was born on Christmas (“Baby Jesus”) puts things in perspective.

Happy New Year!

The first gifts from us that the girls wanted to open: