A North Carolina Christmas

Whew!  I guess Christmas is in the books for another year!  We had so much fun celebrating with our families and watching what a magical time it is for Emmy Cate.  I know it will get better and better each year as she understands the holiday and her excitement level grows for Santa to visit. 

In the few days leading up to the holiday, we spent much of our time playing with Macy and Makayla.  The girls had their first sleepover at their Aunt Mandy’s and Uncle Gary’s house and I think they thought that was pretty cool (at least their parents did!)  It worked out pretty well for them to all bunk up together, but there certainly was a lot of talking and not as much sleeping!  They did great though and woke up in giggles the next morning.  The parents were lucky enough to enjoy a night on the town thanks to their grandparents for keeping the three little monkeys.  The thoughts of waking up to three little tornados in the morning definitely cuts down on the nighttime shenanigans!!

We celebrated Christmas on the eve of Christmas Eve since we would be leaving out on Christmas Eve night.  The girls got dressed up, we ate a big fried chicken dinner (courtesy of Mamaw), and opened WAY too many gifts!  Emmy Cate got a playhouse for the backyard, plenty of Elmo toys, a Jojo hide and seek game, tons of clothes, her very own “kapooter”, a Mickey Mouse guitar, and even a bible as she astutely pointed out to me before I had half of the paper torn off!!

   

The girls had a blast running around with all of their new toys, playing in a pop-up tent with tunnels and balls, and horsing on the ground with Papaw! 

The next night, we headed to the annual Christmas Eve get together with the Smith Family at Eunice’s house.  I think Emmy Cate must have made the loop of the house at a full speed run 100 times!!  Jumping up and down over the step out to the sunroom was also a favorite activity.  Seems like just yesterday that we had her in the walker zooming around the floor! 

 

We attempted a picture of the girls on the same spot on the couch as last year, but as one would imagine, it was impossible to get them all to sit still in one spot.  This was the best we ended up getting:

…. compared to these little tykes from last year …. what a difference a year makes!!