Merry Christmas 2013

Christmas is now over for another year but I'm still a little behind with the Christmas posts - as usual!

So let's start the catch up with a look at our Christmas Day...

As soon as the girls woke up on Christmas morning they knew that they'd made Santa's nice list thanks to the trail of sparkly, snowy footprints he'd left in the hallway overnight. You can find out how Santa left these footprints here. The footprints lead all the way from our Christmas tree in the lounge room, down our entry hallway and out our apartment door. The girls followed the footprints and discovered that, just like previous years, the footprints lead all the way to our nearest fire stairwell which was obviously Santa's point of entry.

Looks like we've had a jolly visitor overnight

The footprints lead from our nearest fire stairwell

Before heading into the lounge room to check under the tree for presents the girls stopped to check the advent calendar. Elfie Pokie Nokie was hanging out in the pocket for day 25 with a couple of letters from Santa for the girls. Ava read out their letters which told them that Elfie had reported to Santa that they'd been good - most of the time!

Elfie has letters for us!

Reading the letters that Elfie brought from Santa

With their letters from Santa read and the sparkly footprints checked out there was just one thing left to do. Run as fast as possible into the lounge room to check for presents!

Running as fast as those little legs will go!

Presents!

Before unwrapping presents though Ava made sure to check that Santa had eaten the cookies and drunk the milk that she had left out for him. She was also eager to check that he had replied to the note that she had left on the table for him. Sure enough, he had responded right where Ava had written "You can write here"!

Ava reads Santa response; a thank you for the cookies and milk.

And then it was finally on to opening presents. The girls had both asked Santa for just one thing - an American Girl doll that looked like them. Sure enough there were two identical parcels under the tree just the right size and shape to hold an American Girl doll. I wonder what they could be?

We think we know what's in here...

Just what she wanted

There were plenty of other presents from family and friends too. The girls were excited to open parcels containing Lego, books, money, clothes (for both themselves and their new dolls!), craft kits, a build it yourself digital camera kit (for Ava) and a magnetic body parts puzzle (for Lola).

I see Lego...

Yes! It's Spongebob Lego!

A parcel from Mummy & Daddy

Ooh... a camera kit

Llama Llama and Peppa Pig - two of Lola's favourites.

There were presents for Mummy and Daddy too. I was treated to a few special items from Kate Spade while Kim received funnier presents including an "ugly" Christmas sweater from local label Oaklandish.  

Kim and the girls

The girls spent much of the day playing with their new toys. The dolls were a huge hit as was the Lego. Ava and Kim also became engineers for a few hours and built Ava's new camera.

Ava and her mini me

Kim and Ava build the camera

Putting it all together

Lola had asked Santa for an American Girl doll that looked like her with blue hair. As you can probably imagine they don't actually make dolls with blue hair. However, what they do make is coloured hair extensions for American Girl dolls and blue is one of the included colours. Lola was so excited that her doll did indeed have some blue hair, albeit a very small amount. She was even more excited when she discovered blue and pink hair chalk for herself wrapped up along with her dolls extensions. Not only did she have a doll with blue hair but she could now have blue hair herself!

Ava and her doll have matching coloured hair!

One last Christmas tradition before the day was through... Every year the girls pose under the Christmas tree with all of their presents. My Mum used to take photos like this of my brother, sister and I and I fondly remember looking back on these photos as a kid. Ava and Lola also enjoy looking at their photos plus they come in handy for trying to remember which year a particular present was received!

Ava with her Christmas presents

This one is clearly her favourite

Crazy girls

Cheesy smiles

I hope that you and your families had a most enjoyable Christmas. Now that all of the craziness of the season is over it's time to relax - and maybe eat a little gingerbread!

Decorated by Ava and Lola

Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays. Happy Festivus!