Anyhow, Mara and Bess and Jacob came over one night and decorated gingerbread houses with us. (For future reference, if you're trying to save time I don't recommend cutting out the step where you attach the gingerbread to cardboard.)
I also thoroughly enjoyed this cuteness in the clam before the storm:
Sometimes I can't stand how sweet they are together, and how much they love each other.
Jesse made a stop in Dallas on his long leave trek. The girls loved playing with him, and I had lots of fun hanging out with my siblings around Christmas-time.
Somehow we didn't manage a sibling picture. Oops. At least I got these.
Nanny, Papa, Steve, Cindy and Abby arrived and we had so much fun with our visitors! We had a great night heading down to Main Street to see the decorations and lights.
This kids had a blast dancing to the music at the gazebo. Later that night the Bird boys and Nanny had a blast singing karaoke.
We had a lovely morning decorating cookies with Steve, Cindy and Abby.
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| Fiona would have kept going all morning, but eventually we ran out of cookies. |
I must admit, I was pretty impressed with the results.
Everyone got dressed up for Christmas Eve Mass.
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| This kid is a trip. |
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| She literally cracks herself up. |
And then we came home and had a good old Bird Family Christmas Eve bash. Unfortunately, I think my picture taking was directly linked to how many people were around. Lots of people (stupidly) = no pictures. :(
Of course Christmas morning was a hit. The girls came out and just stared at Santa's gifts for a bit before Fiona just ran over and gave me a hug. Pure excitement, happiness and joy.
Becca and Joe had everyone over for a delicious Christmas brunch (which of course I forgot my camera for too!), and our way home it started snowing!
By the time our very necessary naps were over, there was enough to actually play in!
We had such a happy Christmas and are so so blessed. Thank you to all the Birds who traveled so far to spend such a wonderful week with us! Next time, I'll try to get my camera out amid the chaos!
i love clams before the storm. they are tasty and make the storm enjoyable. also, evie cracks me up too.
ReplyDeletepete
I appreciated your comment about not skipping the cardboard step in the ginerbread houses. We tried to get away with that this year and it wasted a lot of time. The pieces all started breaking and I had to start all over anyway. Lesson learned. Also, it is so cool that is snowed on Christmas! Since it only snows once or twice a year in Dallas that pretty much seems like the prefect day for it to fall on.
ReplyDeleteloved this post! your girls are the cutest and it kills me not to see them more often than roughly once a year! the key to making gingerbread houses is to use royal icing. that stuff holds them together like glue. just in case you wanted my opinion about that...
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