Dru had about 2 1/2 weeks off for Christmas break. It was wonderful to be able to spend time together as a family especially since we'd been apart for so long. Along with getting a lot of unpacking done on the house, we decorated for Christmas, relaxed, visited Candy Cane Lane and the aquarium a few more times and I was even able to make the girls a felt nativity to play with. We want to make sure that the real reason for Christmas is priority. Mina refers to it as Jesus' birthday party. Mina made a gingerbread house which she snacked on the whole time. It didn't even last a whole day. Santa also sent the girls personalized messages all the way from the North Pole. Their reactions were priceless.
On Christmas Eve day we were invited by some friends to the church for a pot luck lunch and while there all the children would put on a live nativity. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen. I brought clothes for the girls to play angels and Dru ended up playing Joseph.
We got all the Christmas shopping done pretty early so I was able to get everything wrapped several days in advance. I couldn't wait to play Santa Clause Christmas Eve night. I was so excited for the girls to go to bed and wake up the next morning. We've never had Christmas by ourselves before. We made cookies to leave out for Santa, too. The next morning Mina came into our room to tell us she was going to go see if Santa was here. It was so funny that she thought he was coming to stay. We had to explain what Santa does a little better to her. But, the girls were both excited to see all of the presents and Mina's was shocked to see a bite had been taken from one of the cookies we left out. Since Dalia poops first thing every morning, we tried to wait until after she did her business before we started opening gifts. She was taking her sweet time so we let Mina open a couple. You'll see Dalia squatting in the background of a few of the pictures. They both had fun opening gifts and loved playing with their new toys.
Later in the day, we had my friend, McKay, and his sweet family over for dinner. We had a ham (the first one I've ever made), funeral potatoes, rolls, salad and some fruit. It was delicious and it was nice to catch up with an old friend and get to know his wife, Kalee, and their little boy, Boston.
