Christmas 2008

Hannah has been excited for Christmas for days. And on Christmas Eve day, it no longer could stay pent up, her and Rachel were all over each other like nobody's business and it literally drove me nuts all day long. LOL. It's nothing that could be helped as Hannah knew of the festivities that would follow after Christmas Eve church services.

Our church had no Children's Ministry for Christmas Eve, so that meant the girls had to sit in the service with me. They both did pretty good. But once the service was over, we hightailed it over to my Grandmother's house and joined the festivities already in progress. The display of gifts sitting beneath the tree was overwhelming and exciting for young children. Hannah was especially excited when she opened up presents to discover that everything she got, were things that had been on her list! We left my Grandma's relatively early for it being Christmas Eve, but had good conversation on the way home about the evening and what it was that Hannah was hoping to find beneath the Christmas tree for her the next morning. What a huge relief it was to us when the top two things she listed as wanting the most, were things we indeed had bought!!!

Christmas morning found Hannah in our bed shortly after 6:00. She says she's been laying awake in her room since 4 something, but I have a feeling she woke up, looked at her clock and fell back asleep, all the while thinking she was awake all that time. We snuggled for a while and finally just after 7:00, we let Hannah wake up Rachel, and with that, our Christmas Day had officially begun!

After Rachel got her "big" present, we opened stockings in the living room. Hannah got lots of goodies in her stocking. This hat was one of them, which she loves!Hannah needed to wait to open her 'big' present until Uncle Bart joined us later in the morning. So until then, she opened the other presents from us, opened up mailed from our out of state family, and opened up her present from Rachel as well. For years, getting Rachel a present from her, and vice versa has been of big importance. Last week, when the girls and Steven were doing Christmas shopping for me, they each saw this stuffed Bolt dog at the Disney Store. Rachel wanted one. So Hannah decided that is what she wanted to get Rachel. Steven told me Hannah also had expressed a desire for a Bolt dog too. So last Friday, when Hannah was at a Ballet Recital, we quick ran to the mall and much to the surprise of both girls, they gave each other a Bolt dog for Christmas!!! They were both so excited!Soon after our time as a family, the festivities really kicked into gear when the rest of our family arrived. We didn't make Hannah wait any longer for her present and we let her open it. It was an American Girl Doll! Long story short, last Christmas, she kept telling us she wanted one, but would never give a straight answer to if she wanted one that looked like her or one of the historical ones. So we didn't get her one. Now for months, she's been sure to tell us she wanted one that looked like her! She also had some sort of a deal going with Uncle Bart and she kept it a secret, which was part of the deal, and he kept his part of the deal and helped pay for the doll! She was so excited!! And is already bugging us as to when we can go to the American Girl Doll store in Los Angeles. The rest of our Christmas day, the girls spent playing in their bedrooms with McKenzie and Haylee, their cousins, followed by dinner, and then more playing, and then in the early evening, our friends, Keith and Amy and two of their kids joined us. All the kids loved playing together and had a really great time. Amazingly, Hannah managed to stay awake all the way up until we walked our last guests out just minutes before midnight!!! But it wasn't five minutes in bed and she was out!! It was a great CHristmas!!