Christmas Eve!

 I caught a moment between the girls where they were examining their gifts and talking about ornaments on the tree. I vividly remember excitedly examining my wrapped gifts under the tree when I was about Morgan's age. It was magical. I enjoyed witnessing my own littles doing the same. 

Even Maggie enjoyed our tree.

 I had fun decorating the girls bathroom for Christmas this year. I got these giant colored ornaments on clearance a couple of years ago and thought they went perfectly with the girls' colorful bathroom.

We made cookies for Santa.

Charlotte loves playing dress up. For some reason, she reminded me of a circus clown with this ensemble. 

Time to set out milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for his reindeer!

Christmas Lights!

Our family rode the CRV express to go see Christmas lights! The girls put their pajamas and boots on, we grabbed popcorn, turned some Christmas music on and set out for the evening!

 We lucked out because it wasn't super busy. We just go to this neighborhood in our city that does an amazing job with their lights and decorations. Best of all, it's free!

 Charlotte gets sooooo excited when she sees lights. Every.single.time she literally squeals and says "Wook! Wook! Christmas Wights!" It is the cutest thing ever! I should have recorded her. I even like that Morgan lovingly laughs when she does this because she gets a kick out of Charlotte's extreme excitement. 

Santa Visit!

My pretty girl let me snap some photos of her in front of our tree before we left the house.

I loved Charlotte's little red dress.

The girls loved on their dad while waiting for Santa.

We love this location for seeing Santa because you get to privately meet with him in a room undisturbed by the public. We went right after they opened two days before Christmas and didn't have to wait long at all.

This year again didn't disappoint.

 Charlotte ran to him with open arms! It was really touching to witness. 

 I mean look at their faces!

 I always have to get the cd because there are too many great pictures to choose from.

 Morgan asked for a trampoline and Charlotte asked for candy canes. :)

School Performances & Gingerbread Houses!

The theme for Morgan's holiday performance this year was Hawaiian. One of the songs she sang was Mele Kalikimaka. I enjoyed listening to her sing that over and over again weeks leading up to their performance.

 She's in the greenish yellow top, second row up, middle/left.

The girls were thrilled to make Gingerbread houses. I bought a kit that had 3 different little houses so the girls each got their own to build.

 As soon as they were done making the houses, they ripped into them. Those poor Gingerbread houses never stood a chance.

Charlotte dressed up for her Christmas party at daycare. 

I love my sweet girls.

Tidbits!

Take note of the crayon storage used while grocery shopping with mom.

Brilliant, if you ask me.

 Grumpy Charlotte while at sister's flag football game. 

 And happy again...

These girls truly love each other. Of course they bicker and argue but they also spend hours upon hours nicely playing together. I had to take pictures the other day because I think these two peacefully played together for 3 straight hours while entertaining themselves. 

Morgan drew boxes on a piece of paper and then helped Charlotte place stickers in each box.

 Then they played doctor in Morgan's room for a long time. Morgan was the patient and Charlotte was the doctor.

I just had to add the below picture. My work does this cruel, cruel thing every year where every day during the month of December departments bring in goodies for everyone to enjoy. I say it's cruel because when you're trying to lose weight, the below is impossible to resist. Anyway our IT department knocked it out of the park this year. They even brought in a tv to add to the ambiance. This spread was even after our entire company had eaten on it for 3 hours. I cracked up when I saw it!

Christmas Shopping With My Girls!

I took the girls Christmas shopping with me a week or so before Christmas. We actually had a good time! It was a challenge but it was fun being out and about with them during the holidays. Morgan kept saying, "It really is starting to look a lot like Christmas!"

 I stopped by Starbucks for liquid courage and treated the girls to Christmas cookies. I was introduced to these delicious festive cookies by my own parents who bought a cookie for their daughter. :)

 Ugh, just look at those little hands cupped around the giant cookie! I can't get enough of her pretty eyelashes, sweet nose and plump lips looking down at her treat.

 We made lots of stops that day. Below is the girls hanging out at the bank. Why do bank lines always move so slow? 

 I had forgotten how many cool toys are at the book store. I want to go back and get these puppets. The girls were having so much fun with them.

 Morgan loved these Christmas carolers! Morgan loves to sing and has a pretty good voice. Daniel and I want to sign her up for choir.

 Dancing and hugs as mom waits in line...

I look forward to shopping with my girls for many, many more years. I can just see us out having girl days when they're teenagers.