Christmas Stockings

Waiting for Daddy to see if Santa came

Brushing teeth before checking to see if Santa came

THE BONGO DRUMS!! It's all she asked Santa for :)

A real Wonka bar. She was floored :)

Christmas morning we set E's alarm for 7:30, and made her promise not to turn her light on before 6:30. Turns out, we were worried for nothing! Both girls slept past 7, and I was a happy camper.

After we congregated in our bedroom, Daddy went down the hall (through the curtain we'd hung up the night before) to check and see if Santa made it to our house, and he DID! We all held hands and walked down the hall, and then kept holding hands in a circle and sang "Jingle Bells" while walking around the coffee table- it was pretty funny to see E's head whipping around trying to spy out what was in her stocking as she kept passing it. (As I understand it, this is tradition in my husband's family? Because Christmas morning in my house normally involved my brother's getting up around 4 or 5, rifling through everyone's stockings, and then jumping on our bed around 6 to say "GUESS WHAT SANTA BROUGHT YOU!!!!" I don't remember when we actually went downstairs :)

Santa brought each girl a drum and a little recorder (junky, so sad), and some candy and oranges. (Well, M got a banana. Santa knows her well.) Daddy got a big world globe, and Mommy totally must have been a good girl this year because I got Godiva chocolate-covered caramels and both of Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" cookbooks (the original, plus the vegetarian edition.) Everyone got cereal too- the kids love getting sugar cereal, and I love not needing to cook breakfast on Christmas. It's perfect!!