Christmas Day with the Graces

Liz, Steve, and Jeff joined us on Christmas day around 11:00. More presents, more good conversation, more presents, more food, more presents... Christmas joy continued on. We had a wonderful prime rib dinner and had lots of time to enjoy the girls. Uncle Jeff and Daddy took Ryan for a ride in her new mustang. Ryan played her new piano for what seemed like hours. And Charlie, well Charlie pretty much dabbled in everything!

Ryan's first official drive.

Papa figuring out the new piano features. The girls wait patiently.

Anyone thinking, Stevie Wonder?

I think this one needs to be framed!

Christmas Morning Fun

I don't know how Santa fits these huge toys into his bag but he sure did make two little Grace girls happy. The school bus was for Charlie and the car for Ryan. But both girls loved it all and began "sharing" from the beginning.

Ryan says, "Look what Santa brought for you Charla!"

Can't you just imagine these two girls at 16 and 17, "Hey boys, come ride with me and my sister! We just ditched first period!"

It took awhile before either girl even noticed that there were OTHER toys that Santa brought!

SANTA GOT CAUGHT IN THE ACT!!

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house
not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...

Of course, until Mommy and Daddy heard some strange noises from the living room. We peeked around the corner and caught Santa Claus right in the act!
We snapped a few pictures to prove it.

Christmas Eve with the Kudrons

Christmas Eve started out a whirlwind of activity for the weekend to come. Nonna, Grandpa, Mike, Nancy, and cousin Katie came over to celebrate with us. I cooked my first turkey and was a little overwhelmed so the camera did get much action for this one. The girls played wonderfully together. Even "Charla" as both Katie and Ryan called her consistently throughout the night. For the first time in a very long time, Steve and I both felt like we got to enjoy all of the adult conversation during dinner. We opened presents after dinner and then let the girls change into their jammies while playing a little longer. You will see that the hit present of the night was Ryan and Katie's matching pink electric guitars. Rock out girls!

Preschool Crafts

Friday was Ryan's last day of preschool for two weeks and she brought home so many fun crafts she made this month. Actually, she has been bringing them home throughout the month too but Friday she gave us three handmade ornaments as our gift. She got to pick where they were to go on the tree.

Here is daddy putting Ryan's handmade angel on top of our tree. (We later decided to take it down because we think it's probably flammable. We told Ryan we would leave it out for Santa to put back up and that way we would know he was here. I hope Santa doesn't forget.)

"Ring in the Holidays"

That was the name of Ryan's Christmas show at her preschool. Gigi and Godmommy Katie drove down to join Steve, Charlie and me at the show. We met up at our house and took the "bus" over to the school. Ryan was so cute yelling through the auditorium after EVERY song saying, "Hi Charlie, Charlie, Charlie." I think we were the only ones that knew what she was saying but we got a kick out of it every time. She also did shout outs to all the rest of us too. And boy was she a ham! So animated with her facial expressions and her hands. Nobody else was doing hand movements to the songs but that didn't stop Ryan. Right there in the front row for everyone to see. So glad that we took the video camera to this one! Many, many priceless moments.

Charlie feeding her "baby"

No special event here. Charlie and I were just home alone the other day and as I was busy doing laundry, she was playing really well by herself. From a few feet back I was observing her for awhile taking such loving care of her "baby." She put her in the play carseat, carried her around, hugged her, kissed her, and even fed her from her very own bottle. I couldn't tear myself away to go get the camera until the very end. The pictures I snapped don't quite capture the moment but it was too precious to skip.

Making gingerbread houses sounded like a ton of fun...

... until you bring 2 year olds to do it! Ha-Ha! Michelle and I decided to take Carson and Ryan (Charlie is still much too young) to Downtown Disney to make gingerbread houses. Without going into too much detail, it was one of those days that... hmmm.... how do I put this lightly... was tiring. The girls had a good time though so it was all worth it. I will have to say, the highlight of the day for me was watching Ryan's reaction to Santa Claus (her first encounter ever). She loved him. He was across the room and she instantly stood on my lap and yelled at the top of her lungs to him. "HI SANTA!! HO-HO-HO!! HI SANTA!! HO-HO-HO!!" And when the opportunity came, Ryan sat on Santa's lap without any hesitation and told him proudly that she would "like a green or white car for Christmas."

Carson and Michelle busy building their house.

We call these kind of days "Special Ryan and Mommy Days"

You can just see the delight in this child's eyes. She was so excited to meet Santa.

Charlie's learning how to be a "big girl"

And who is she learning from? None other than the "big girl" herself! First skill to master like her big sister: sitting on the couch all by herself. Here is the attempt...

And she's up...

And now proudly hanging out on the couch just like one of the girls!

Second skill to master: sitting at the kitchen counter to eat her meal just like her big sister...

And here she is with big sister showing her the ropes (and mommy is even closer by to prevent a nasty fall)...

Giving Thanks

Sorry for the delay in posts. The holiday season has gotten the best of me and I haven't been on the computer much. We spent the day at Mike and Nancy's house. It was very relaxing. Great food, great fun.

The Graces trying to get a family photo.

Katie and Ryan playing on Katie's "big girl" bed.

Nonna trying to get a photo for her Christmas card. As you can tell, Charlie wasn't cooperating!

Wow! A year has passed...

There has been a whole lot of picture taking around here lately so I apologize for not updating the blog any sooner. The girls and I are all fighting colds right now and it reminded me of last Christmas when we missed all of our holiday events. So even though the camera is currently gathering cob webs, here are a few pics from the holiday season last year. Hopefully we can all get this out of our system before Christmas comes knocking this year. Can you believe how much they have grown??? Hoping each of you is staying healthy. Take care.