Christmas Eve was spent at Mom's house. The girls were excited about Santa coming. We tracked Santa on Google Earth all day long. They saw how many places Santa had to deliver presents to. They left food out for Santa's reindeer.



No Christmas Eve at the Galbraith household would be complete without our very own photo booth!! Gotta have your props!

Girls love them some Molly!

Then we left Santa some cookies and milk.


We sang some Christmas songs and off to bed they went. Did they go to sleep? Heck no! Around 11pm, is when they finally closed their eyes. Check back later for videos to be uploaded.

Emi and I took on the task of taking the girls to see Santa. This involves a lot of promises and bribery! I had gummies, capri suns and chex mix! When our turn was next, I looked at Grace and said "you have to sit on Santa's lap and smile for the photo then I'll take you to ChickFila." Well people, it fricken worked!! This is one happy Momma! Ava ran right up to Santa and hopped on his lap. Grace took her time but eventually got up there. I said "smile" and the helper Elf snapped it! It was perfect! Our first year of smiles with Santa!!


BTW, we went to Chickfila and Grace cleaned her plate!

Grace and Madison (I love that they are holding hands! Cute!)

Madison and Ms. Kathy

Derek worked really hard today to create a playhouse around the bottom portion of their playset. He decked the floor so we don't have to worry about mud anymore. He still needs to cut windows out but that is next week. This was the hardest part. The girls were super excited to see their new playhouse when they got home today.

We started 'Elf on a Shelf' this year with the girls. We read the story and named our Elf. His name is Georges, pronounced: George-ES. Grace picked it and Ava agreed. Georges is a very busy elf. The girls were looking for him this morning and Grace said "come on Georges, fly to me. I know you can!"

Derek and I bought a family portrait session for Mom's birthday. Yes, that was back in May but we finally found a date that worked for everyone. Here are the sneak peaks!! Incredible!
http://hauteshotphotography.blogspot.com/2010/12/aly-co.html
Jenn tagged me a couple more photos on FB so check those out too!

Derek and I took the girls to Barnes n Noble for storytime. Santa and Ms. Clause made an appearance to read 'The Polar Express'. The girls had a good time. We even got to take photos with Santa.
Ava hopped right up and told Santa she wanted a teddy bear for Christmas. Grace wasn't too sure and decided against getting on Santa's lap.

I love Christmas time because it brings so many traditions to start with the girls. Tonight, I enjoyed decorating gingerbread houses with the girls. This is our first year of doing this. I will definitely continue this tradition with them. Their favorite part was eating the icing and candy! I told Grace "don't eat the red hots cause they're spicy". She wanted to make sure and her mouth was on fire. I just laughed and said "I told you so!" hahahaha!

Missy's friend Holly flew down for the weekend and we decided to show Holly what its like when the Scott's, Pate's and Quince's get together. 6 kids ranging in age of 13 months to 3 years old. A little hectic to say the least. We grilled for dinner and then put Toy Story in so we could enjoy some adult time. It was fun to catch up and let the kiddos play.


This is what I found when I looked in the living room to check on the kids. Grace and Amare snuggled in Amare's napmat together. I looked right at Gyasi and said "get your kid dude!" haha!

After the movie, the kids all wanted to dance. First on their playlist is Boom Boom Pow! They also jammed to "single ladies". All we ask for is their energy to be run down enough so let us sleep in the next morning. It's the small things in life.

We put the Christmas tree up tonight and decorated it with the girls. It's always an adventure when two 3 year olds are your helpers. We put on some Christmas music to get into the holiday spirit. The girls helped pass the lights around the tree. Then they each got a pile of ornaments to place on the tree. Most of them were on the bottom branches of the tree so I had to help out a little. They did great for their first time to decorate the tree.





We even danced a little! Derek showed them how to play their air guitars.