With eleven people in the house, it has been a busy Christmas break. Some of you may be use to the craziness of that many people, but I grew up with one sister and we have a quiet existence here at our house. Not so with this many people. Still, we have had some good times. The girls have taken advantage of having an uncle around and pounce on him any time they can:
My sister and I were able to squeeze out some alone time to go get pedicures together. The kids were jealous so they had to have pretties on their fingers too.
Having two two-year-old girls in the house is an experience. They are a lot alike in some ways and can clash, but they have their rare moments where they peacefully play together too. Taylor had to grab us for this photo opportunity of them reading quietly together.
Another peaceful moment:
Christmas went pretty well this year. My sisters kids slept in late, so my girls were almost done opening presents before her kids were even awake. This way we could divide and conquer and not have a present opening hay-day. We divided the presents into piles this year and the girls took turns pulling gifts out of their pile to open.
With her birthday only days earlier, Kim understood the unwrapping a present concept a lot better this year.
Uncle Jeff had a little too much fun with a ribbon from one of the girls' towels:
Aunty Liz and Emma waiting for the boys to wake up so they could open their presents:
Kim showing off a shirt she got from Grandpa Ferris:
The sweet sound of silence you finally get when they play with their presents for the first time:
Tea party:
One of our Christmas traditions is to put all the presents on a chair or the couch and take a picture of your gifts. (I love this tradition! It helps establish ownership so two years from now your sister can't claim something as hers if you have proof that it was indeed yours. I grew up with a sister and my girls have more than one to contend with so this is a tradition we plan to continue! I also think it is fun to look back since the presents often reflect your likes at that age)
Rather than do a bunch of little socks, Santa did one BIG sock this year:
Another tradition is for our sock to contain marshmallow Santas. Kim was a big fan of this tradition:
Kim playing with one of her Christmas presents. She and this baby doll are pretty inseparable around the house right now.
