Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

We are so blessed to be able to spend time with both of our families at Christmas.  Our tradition has been spending Christmas Eve with Bill's side of the family.  We had everyone over to our house this Christmas Eve and enjoyed dinner together and then opened presents.

Grandma showing off her picture of the girls

Lauren, Parker and Allison

Allison, Grandpa, Lauren, Parker and Grandma

Granddaddy, Allison, Parker, Lauren

  After the family left on Christmas Eve, the girls quickly got ready for bed.  They were so excited because they got to sleep together that night.  After getting jammies on and  teeth brushed and flossed, we settled on Mommy and Daddy's bed to read our traditional stories.  Then it was off to bed, sleeping in sleeping bags on Allison's floor.  (Allison has more floor space to sleep on than Lauren, that's why they slept in her room.)  Amazingly, the girls went to sleep pretty quickly. 

Visions of sugar plums were surely dancing in their heads

The girls slept until about 7:30 (which is pretty late for them) before coming to wish us a Merry Christmas.   We were all excited to get downstairs to see what Santa left.  I was certain I heard Santa during the night.  I was awakened abruptly with a loud bang.  I jumped up and ran to Allison's room to make sure the girls were ok.  (I'm still afraid that one of the girls will fall down the stairs during the night, trying to come into our room.)   When I saw the girls were sleeping, I came on back to bed, with my heart still pounding.  It wasn't until I got out of bed that morning that I realized what woke me up during the night......the control to our electric blanket had fallen off the bed and hit the wall.  Guess it wasn't Santa, after all.  I managed to sleep right through his arrival.

Santa left Kindle Fires, and their stockings in new saucer chairs.

Lauren got a book that she can personalize

One of Allison's few requests for Christmas was for a little bear....she got two.

A new purse to color with fabric markers

New clothes and headband

I love this picture.....

Lauren got a little bear, too

Lauren asked for a paint set, and she got her first paint by number set, too.

Opening some new clothes

Modelling her new scarf.

Modelling a new outfit

Daddy cooked his traditional pancake breakfast for us.  After that it was time to clean up the floor a little, pack up the van and head to Blountville.

Allison, Granny and Lauren

Lauren, Uncle Bill, & Allison

Allison sitting by a pile of her presents

Lauren with her pile

Lauren gives Allison a big hug after opening a present from her

Allison with her stuffed monkey

Girls with their new stuffed animals

Lauren's new stuffed lion

New hat and mittens from Uncle Bill

Lauren's new hat and mittens

We enjoyed the traditional turkey and dressing dinner at Mom and Dad's.  I love mom's dressing more than anything.  Chocolate and Butterscotch pie were our traditional dessert.  All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas!!!  The only bad thing was that Dad got sick, Allison got a nasty cold, and we headed back to Knoxville a day early because of the sickness.