What Santa Left!

Santa sure was good to us this year. 



Stockings





Presents



Everything!

Curious about the huge box in the corner?  I'll give you a peek!

A box form Tiffany's!!!

The Week Before Christmas

 We had so much fun getting ready for Christmas.  We made cookies, did the advent calendar, made crayons for cousins, drove around our neighborhood looking at lights etc. etc.  The Wednesday before Christmas our library had Santa there, so we got our obligatory picture.  Gianna had to be bribed again, but Elia was super excited about it.

On Christmas Eve I took Gianna and Elia out separately to buy gifts for each other.  Gianna picked out some hair clips for Elia and Elia picked out a Snowman tray.  Elia has her own Santa tray, which she called her Santa board and so when she saw the Snowman tray she got really excited that she could give her sister a Snowman board.

All wrapped!





Trying out all the toys first.  She was really excited to bring her own purse with money in it.

 This is what our tree looked like Christmas Eve- this isn't even Santa's gifts!

1/2 Days are the best!

Chris took a half day this week so we headed over to the Galleria to see Santa.  All day Gianna insisted she did not want to sit on his lap.  Even after we showed her Santa's picture setup and all the cool decorations, she still said she didn't want to do it.  But Elia really wanted to, so we bribed Gianna with candy.  She did very well, but I didn't want to fork over the $22 for ONE picture, so they just sat on his lap and chatted with him.  He was a great Santa- he asked the girls if they were helping pick up their toys and clothes and if they were being sweet to each other AND he said that if they are extra good he will bring them some surprises.  Gianna has been talking about that part of the visit ever since.  I think next year we will get a real picture.  We probably spent another hour walking around the mall and we took a few pictures in front of the Chrismas trees- where we finally took a decent enough one to send one out in the mail!  Score for us.

When Elia first walked close to the railing, she reached her hand out very cautiously to touch the glass to make sure she wouldnt fall through!  They could have stared at the ice skaters for a VERY long time.

We thought about taking them skating, but decided to wait till next year!

Those little dresses they are wearing are from one of my 2nd grader's moms- made especially for them!  So cute.  As we were leaving the mall, Gianna told us that "this place is awesome."  Haha!