The rest of Christmas

Before I put up pictures of Christmas Day, I realized I never put these beauties up.  Beware: iPhone pictures ahead.  I forgot my camera the day that we went up to my Aunt and Uncle's house.  We were supposed to bring a Gingerbread house kit for our kids, but my husband requested we make Gingerbread cookies instead.  Just as much fun to decorate, but we can eat them afterward.  Suprisingly, the kids didn't really eat much of them at all - but we did.  Yum.

They had very interesting techniques.  Tyler went for the methodical approach, and once you squeezed out some frosting for him he would very carefully put little yellow and green mints on every available spot.  Not the pink ones, for whatever reason.  Or any other kind of candy.

Whereas Kaitlyn went for pure production.  She would put one glob of frosting on a cookie, push one object onto that spot, and declare it done.  Next!  She ate one head, and that was all.

Well, back to Christmas.  When the kids woke up (at about 8:30) we brought them down to see the dollhouse that Santa had brought.  I thought this would be the hit of the universe, but actually they haven't played with it much at all.  Given how HUGE it is, we'll see how long it lasts.  Anyway, handed them presents to open, and Kaitlyn told us we weren't allowed until Santa came.  I'm not sure what she was expecting to happen that didn't, but bless her for keeping the rules.

Once we got them going, though, they liked this very much. Tyler would play with each one for quite some time, and Kaitlyn did too at first. Until she figured out that the more she unwrapped, the more cool things there were. So she ended up unwrapping all of their shared gifts while Tyler admired his own presents.

Let's see, they got the waterbottles you see in the picture (Tink and Buzz make them awesome), and Tyler is holding an owl puppet and his green truck too.

They love their flashlights a lot.  What kid doesn't?

The suprise hit of the day was the ZhuZhu pets.  My mom sent those on a whim, and lo and behold my kids thought they were a riot.  They just run around in little circles on the floor making silly chirpy noises, and it makes Tyler giggle.

He also decided they might like the car ramp he got.

Kaitlyn loved the dolly clothes.  None of her "baby dollies" had any clothes, and she spent a good 15 minutes sitting there and taking each piece on and off.  Nothing stayed on for more than three seconds - I guess it was all about the process.

My aunt sent Tyler this slinky.  He thought it was really cool!  We tried to send it down the stairs, but I guess ours are too wide.  I thought it was a good present.

Kaitlyn thought it was fun too.  You know, to play tug of war with Tyler, and then wrap around herself and tie in a knot.  And thus died the slinky.

Good thing she read the directions for the Lincoln Logs though.

That evening, we went over to my in-laws again, to have dinner and visit with "Grape Grandma".  And to get one more Christmas present from my brother-in-law - a haircut for Kaitlyn.  It is strange, because I normally love long hair on little girls.  But Kaitlyn's blonde and curly hair just became a bigger mess the further it grew out.  And the ends were thin, fluffly baby hair.  So it was time to go back to the bob.

My brother-in-law is great!  He just finished hair school, and is gaining quite the clientell on the side, going around and cutting people's hair in their homes.  And he is working at a really nice salon up in Salt Lake as well.

Ta-da!  I love all the curl!

And here she is, on our way to church the next morning.

We had a great Christmas!