Merry Christmas! (part 2)

I'm really going to miss Christmas around our house. It has been so incredibly fun. The kids and I have enjoyed the decorations immensely. Gus started saying "snowman," pronounced "mow-man" or "mow-mee," early in the Christmas season and then began calling every single decoration (i.e., Christmas trees, lights, Santas, snowflakes, snowglobes, etc.) that he saw a snowman. We thought it was precious and didn't exactly help him to learn the correct words for those other things. We also love that Gussy said lots of 'Ho Ho Hoooooo's' (that last one gets very deep, almost like his lion roar) and 'Fa la la la's.' We'll miss all of those things. Oh, and when we sing "Jingle Bells," he yells the "Hey!" between verses.

Catalina has also been completely adorable! We've been listening to Christmas music in the car since Thanksgiving and she has learned lots of songs. Her favorites are "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer." She loved visiting Santa both times. On Christmas morning, she told me that she thinks Santa is a "really good listener" because he gave her what she asked him for. Precious!

Anytime we were ever in the car and Catalina saw Christmas lights, she went nuts..."Mama, look, look, look!! Mama, did you see it? You saw it, Mama? Are you sure? Oh, look, Mama, look! There are so many!" We have loved hearing that excitement in her voice over all things Christmas. More than anything, we loved hearing her talk about baby Jesus' birthday. One day, she came out of her Sunday school class with a little paper manger that she had made, complete with yarn for hay and a little baby Jesus(below). She said, "Mama, you know who this is? Baby Jesus. And you know what this is? Hay, for him to be soft and warm." I asked her to repeat it about 20 times that day, just because it sounded so sweet.



Now, here are some pictures of our Christmas:

Our little sleepy-head forgot what day it was. She saw Louie and said, "You going to work, Papa?" He said, "No, it's Christmas!" "Today?!?" "Yes. And, guess who came to visit last night?" "Who?" "Santa!" That definitely woke her up!



Hugging her bubby 'good morning':



There are a ton of pictures of them opening presents. I'll spare you and only include a few.





Cati was really happy that Santa enjoyed the cookies, but she suspected that he also ate the carrots and didn't give them to the reindeer. That last part made us laugh!



There are also a lot of pictures of them playing with their toys. Here are a couple of them. Catalina got a doctor kit from Bibi and Grandad, so she had to listen to everyone's heart and take everyone's temperature, plus, she tried to listen to baby A.J. in Tia Missy's stummy.





Louie's parents, his sister, and her husband came over for brunch after we opened Santa's gifts. Then, in the afternoon, we all went over to Louie's Aunt Doreen and Uncle Dave's house. They had great food, plus, lots of decorations and gifts. It was a lot of fun for everyone.







Gus scratching off his first lottery ticket.



At the end of the day, everyone was happy, full, and exhausted!