Christmas

Christmas was mostly fantastic this year. Matt woke up Christmas morning with an awful pain in his back/shoulder along with cold/flu symptoms increasing. He ended up taking a pain reliever/muscle relaxer that knocked him out most of the day. He missed most of the morning madness under the Christmas tree but felt almost back to normal the next day. The day in bed seemed to help. Crummy timing though.
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After Kennedy's big rollover and Madison's late night, Mommy Santa set up the tree for the next morning.
Gramm and Pop were still working on jet lag and Daddy was fighting off a yucky cold so Mommy was on her own as all the other grown-ups had visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads.
Fair warning: Pop used his fish eye lens Christmas morning so a lot of his up close photos are blurry. None the less, it was tough to narrow down the pics so there are a bunch to see...



While Gramm and Pop stayed with us, we gave them our bedroom. I stayed on a roll away (thank you Chad and Kelly!) between the girls beds so I was close when Kennedy needed to nurse I was there. Daddy stayed in the office. In hindsight it was the perfect decision as Daddy got a miserable cold and needed to steer clear of the girls.

We woke up Christmas morning and got pictures of all the girls cuddled in Mommy's temporary bed (where they ended up most nights anyway!).


Madison just wanted to cuddle down in the bed for more pictures.



She didn't realize what was waiting in the living room.





Santa brought back the 'stand up' toy for Kennedy this year. By the end of the day she mastered the teetering animals and rotating seat. We even had to lower the bouncing pad for our tall girl!







Gramm and Pop got Madison a brand new pink and purple Radio Flyer tricycle to excite her Christmas morning...







and boy did it!




After trying to ride her trike around the living room,







Madison grabbed her new pink mixer and coffee maker to play with. Shortly after convincing Pop to take them out of the box she needed 'food' to mix. She chose french fries out of her new box of 1oo some odd pieces of play food.







Madison enjoyed bouncing from unwrapped present to unwrapped present. She insisted on taking each one out of the box and playing with it before moving onto the next. Gramm remembered a large pretend fish tank Madison wanted to get her new baby sister from the hospital gift shop. She found a much smaller one and Madison has been fascinated with it everyday since. She turns it on and off all day, almost everyday still.



Then it came time to start unwrapping. She helped everyone.







Kennedy sat with Gramm and Pop while Madison searched under the tree for presents. (Kennedy loved the lights on Pop's pants)







Then it was her turn to sit with Mommy and open a few. Including her new baby doll from Aunt Darlene (which Madison promptly confiscated after Christmas)







She loved her blanket from Mommy and Gramm's friend, Grandma Foster so much she immediately put it in her mouth.







She spent the rest of the morning rolling around on her blanket







while the madness continued around her.





Santa even brought Madison her BIG GIRL panties in her stocking. (and lots of new hats!)





As you can see, we were all so blessed this Christmas.


The girls got new baby dolls, a ballerina friend for 'Baby Abby'-Madison's barbie, along with a new wardrobe for the barbies, the Sleeping Beauty movie, Yertle the Turtle, tons of fantastic new clothes, special Mr Potato Head friends, and the list goes on and on! Kennedy even got a special piggie bank with her name on it just like Madison got her first Christmas.
Santa even brought Madison her very own kid tough camera since she loves Mommy's so much.


Mommy got her very own Georgia stained glass "G". She's been trying to figure out how to 'relocate' Uncle Daniel's to California ever since he transferred to University of Florida and became a Gator!





Kennedy got a special terrycloth teething 'baby' with her name monogrammed on it. It can be frozen and chewed or sucked on when teething. She LOVES it.



The rain stopped shortly after we finished opening everything so Pop dressed Madison up in a new hat and her new jacket to ride her trike and take some pictures with her new camera.

Gramm and Pop played with the girls while Mommy cooked.


We had ham, green bean casserole, and Martha Stewart's homemade mac n cheese (Thanks for the recipe and tip, Meg!!) for dinner.
Gramm introduced Kennedy to green beans just before we ate dinner.

She was less than thrilled at first (but look how cute she is in one of her new bibs!).

After a late lunch/early dinner Gramm took Madison in for a nap. Pop fell asleep in the living room, and Mommy napped with Kennedy while she nursed. Daddy was great and cleaned up the whole kitchen!
It was tough to choose just a few pictures to document our day. I'll work on a link to the rest of the pics.
Here are a couple of my favorites when playing Madison's favorite- super baby -with Kennedy.

OK Mommy- STOP the Christmas post. Can't wait for next year!