Christmas Morning

This was the first year that Olive had made an actual Santa list.  When we worked on it, it made me so teary because I realized how big she is getting! She drew Santa an octopus and asked him for 3 specific things: a Foofa "pet", a dollhouse like Cora's and a big doll like in the magazine. 

Christmas morning she woke up to see if Santa had brought what she asked for and he did!  She was so excited! 

 We found a letter that Santa left her and it explained that he had granted Jovie special permission to stay for Christmas day to see her open presents!  And it even included a surprise...before Olive went to bed that night, she was going to be able to hug Jovie and she wouldn't lose her magic.  She may have been more excited about this than her presents!

 She wanted to open stockings first and she wanted to help Daddy open his first!  
When Stephen was a little boy, he would sit in his rocking chair after kindergarten and listen to Pete's Dragon on his record player.  Earlier in the Christmas season, I had found the movie and decided it would be a great stocking gift for him.  Olive and I had gone to pick it up a few days before Christmas.  She was in the car with Stephen the next day and says "Daddy, Mommy and I got you your very favorite movie from when you were a little boy!  It has the lady named Nora in it!"  Then she proceeded to tell him that we went to the tractor store and got his special boots...guess we will need to talk about how to keep a secret before next year!

 She even wanted to help Wrigley open her stocking!

 Then it was time to open presents!

 Suddenly, we noticed snowflakes starting to fall outside!  She was thrilled!  Every few minutes she would run to the window to peak out!

 She played and played for the rest of the day!  I found her dollhouse family all sleeping in the same room.  The Daddy is using the bath tub as a bed and the little boy is in the closet. This made us laugh!  Who knows what psychology could say about that! :)

We had such a wonderful Christmas celebrating with our most precious gift! I can't even imagine all of the ways Christmas will be different and even more special next year with another little one.  I hope your Christmas was blessed and very merry!