Santa Came!

On Christmas Eve we made mini donuts for Santa from an American Girl recipe that uses Cheerios

 Santa came to visit the Wilsons!  Emily woke up at 6:00 a.m. and we held her off until 7:00 when we let her wake up her sister to go see what Santa brought:

 He brought doll beds, doll dresses, My Little Pony Equestria Dolls, design books, coloring books, and candy!

Ana the Elf left some Frozen plates and gum:

 

After the girls checked everything out we opened gifts.  Emily got Molly and Abigail got a doll she named Abigail:

 They exchanged gifts from each other.  Emily got Abigail a diary and Abigail got Emily a Repunzel doll:

 Emily got Joe and I some gifts from her school store:

 She also made a picture at school and her teacher framed it:

  

The aftermath . . .

After opening gifts everyone put together Legos:

 Emily enjoyed playing with her dolls:

 Merry Christmas!!!!

Santa and Polar Express

On Tuesday night we went to the Robinson's House for a Christmas get together and guess who came to visit!

Everyone was so excited that Santa came to the party.  He listened to what everyone wanted for Christmas and even passed out small gifts to the kids. 

Abigail was more interested in getting her face painted and asked if Emily could get her gift for her from Santa because she wasn't going to get to too close : ) 

 Rachel snapped this photo for me of Santa BEHIND Abigail.  Abigail never knew he was there:

On Wednesday I drove to Auburn to work and went to eat Christmas lunch with everyone.  It was nice seeing everyone that day.  Joe was off work and stayed home to handle carpool duty and getting Emily from the bus:

That evening I met everyone at Polar Express at our favorite chicken place.  We ate dinner and then rode the Polar Express train:

 And got Hot Chocolate

 This year they also had free Santa pictures.  Abigail and Harper told us they wanted to just sit in front of Santa for the picture but he coordinating the photo session and picked them up to put them in his lap : )  They did great!

The last day of school before break was on Friday and both girls had Pajama Day at school!

On Saturday we took it easy at home.  Emily used her new American Girl craft to make her doll a shirt with a cat on it:

The count down to Christmas morning has begun!

Christmas with Family

This weekend we celebrated Christmas together with my family.  We met in Birmingham at Michelle's house.

 

We opened gifts together on Saturday night:

 

 

 

Roller Coaster made his rounds sitting in everyone's lap. 

 Joe was so pleased that Roller Coaster chose him to snuggle with: )

 

Christmas Programs and Dances

On Tuesday I volunteered at Emily's school to help in the Winter Wonderland store.  This is a chance for the kids to shop for Christmas gifts for their family and friends.  I had a fun time helping the kids pick out gifts.  On Wednesday Emily's class went to the store and she came straight home to her room to proudly wrap everyone's gifts and put them under the tree.

I also went to Abigail's Christmas program on Wednesday.  Abigail's class dressed up like cows and sang songs to baby Jesus:

 After the program we went to the gym to have birthday cake:

 Abigail with her teachers Mrs. Amy and Mrs. Marcy:

Tonight Joe and Emily went to the Daddy Daughter dance at school.  Joe took her to dinner to her favorite Chicken place and then the dance.  Emily wanted to wear her "sparkly" dress to the dance:

Abigail and I went Christmas shopping for her sister and then met Alexa and Harper for dinner:

December Happenings

December is such a busy month that I didn't sign the girls up for dance or gymnastics.  We spent time hanging out this week before all the Christmas activities started taking hold.  The girls have gotten into fights from time to time because Emily likes to play the leader and Abigail likes to do things just to get at her sister . . . so when they take little moments like this to read a book together I run and grab my camera to remember these moments:

We also had a couple of play dates with neighborhood friends.  Emily has been cracking me up with her clothes choices when it's December!  But I try to let her have a little freedom in her clothes choice department:

I spent several evenings wrapping Christmas presents.  When I finally finished and had most of my closet back to myself, I happily paid Emily $1 to straighten out all my shoes.  She and I speak the same love language when it comes to organizing things so she thought getting a $1 for something she loves to do was a win for her!

She happily organized all of my shoes and had them all neatly in rows for me in no time!

We were also informed today by Emily's teacher that she will not be giving any homework for the last 2 weeks before the break.  I can tell she is a mom too!  Thanks Mrs. Jackson!