Holiday Joy

Here are some fun pics for our wonderfully joy-filled holiday season.  We ate way too many sweets, celebrated constantly, and stayed up way too late.  Just what I call a successful way to end the year.  I really struggled this year with trying to keep all the gift-giving under control.  Lila is especially prone to "the gimmies".  But, overall, they were gracious about what the received (which was still abundant).  I made the girls each a costume- Lila a cheetah and Maggie a zebra.   They are pictured below with only the hats on, but it is a full-body costume that Lila wore to church and subsequent celebrations claiming it her "favorite gift".  Yay Mommy!  However, she also received "Princess Celestia" which she "wanted her whole life" and when she first saw her "fell deeply in love"

Mag's zebra hat

Lila's "favorite Christmas gift"

Lila and Delphi

 

The girls also got kittens which thoroughly pleased them.  Lila named hers "Lily" (even though its a boy).  Maggie named hers "Zebra", then something I can't remember, then she finally settled on "Delphi" because Delphi and Lily are the character names from a beloved book Opa reads to them.  

Cousin snuggles while watching cartoons on Nana's bed

Maggie sporting the Nana-made bonnet

 We spent Christmas Eve Eve with Nana, Opa, and the cousins.  There was much giggling, music-making, and playing.  As a gift, I made my niece, Dorothy, a bonnet like Laura from Little House on the Prarie following this tutorial.  It turned out great and she seemed to really like it.  Lila and Dorothy often play Mary and Laura.  Dorothy put on her bonnet and of course Lila needed one.  So, clever Nana came up with a make-shift bonnet by stapling together some scrap material.  However, once Lila and Maggie had the Nana-made ones, Dorothy insisted she needed one!  My lovingly-crafted bonnet was left on the table while the stapled-together scraps traipsed around the house atop "Laura 1", "Laura 2", and "Carrie".  What a laugh.