Christmas 2011

This Christmas, Jim's parents, Steve and Linda, came to visit us! We've had a fun and lazy vacation so far. We decided to move "Christmas morning" to Saturday just so that we wouldn't be too rushed and stressed out trying to get to church on time. It was a good decision, since gift opening lasted well into the afternoon!

On Friday night, which was our "Christmas Eve", we went on the Lights Cruise on Lake Coeur d'Alene.

Lily up on Daddy's shoulders.
Grace with Grandpa Steve.
The family with the setting sun and the resort in the background.
Linda, Jim, Lily, Grace, and Steve waiting to see Santa.
When we got home from the Lights Cruise and dinner at Bonsai, we saw that Mrs. Claus had brought matching Christmas jammies for the girls. Cousin Madison also got matching jammies, but they didn't arrive quite in time for Christmas Eve.
Cute girls ready for bed so that Santa could come stuff their stockings!
But not before a quick light sabre fight. We went to Triple Play earlier in the day, and with all the tickets we won, Lily picked out a set of light sabres for Grace and herself.
Too much fun!
Then we headed up to Lily's room to read Twas The Night Before Christmas.
Lily had questions about almost every page.
On Christmas morning, Lily woke up to find Santa's cookies eaten and milk drunk, and the stockings filled with gifts!
A lantern! Lily is kind of obsessed with flashlights and the like, so she was pretty stoked to get a lantern.
Grace opening her stocking.
What a cutie pie on Christmas morning!
That last picture reminded me of this picture of Goo from last Christmas.
A truck! Nothing makes Grace happier than a new truck with which to play!
Lily got a harmonica in her stocking. Good idea? Bad idea? Time will tell!
One of Grace's big gifts from Jim and I was a folding camp chair.Lily has one, and sometimes it's tough to share.
Goo lounging in her chair.
Thanks for the tool set, Gramby and Geezer!
Thanks Abby and Isaac for the cool book!
Two of the girls' favorite gifts were the Fur Real cat that Grace gave to Lily...
...and the Little People train set that Lily gave to Grace. Those two toys got played with more than anything else. Lily named her kitty cat Stocking, and Stocking helped her open the rest of her gifts. Stocking also creeped us all out by mewing and moving her head randomly.
Lily and Grace's big gift from us was a tool bench. I debated if we should just set it out from the get-go, or try to wrap it, or send them on a wild goose chase to find it. We opted for the wild goose chase. I took pictures of random places around the house, and wrapped the first picture. When Lily opened it, she had to go find where that picture was taken, and when she got there she'd find a picture of the next location. Eventually she was led to our master bedroom closet, where the tool bench was. The next hour or so was spent hammering just about everything in sight.
I had to include one more "Ghosts of Christmas Past" picture. Grace was barely sitting up last Christmas!