welcome christmas, christmas day

due to carter's ear infection, we decided to not go to christmas eve service and dinner at my brother and sister-in-law's with the rest of the family in hopes that she would feel better and be well rested for the next day. so, we preceded with our regular christmas eve traditions. after putting on christmas pjs, we loaded up and looked at lights for a long time. then, we fed santa's reindeer. i have no idea why everyone is so excited to feed the reindeer. 

next, we got santa's milk and cookies ready. watch out, santa, i think miller is thirsty!

and, lastly, josh read the night before christmas to everyone.

we decided last year that we needed to determine what christmas would look like at the malahy house. we decided that santa would be downplayed as it seems a little off to us to spend all of december focusing on the birth of jesus and then have christmas day be all about what great gifts santa brought you. so, santa brings stockings and several small things including a stack of books to share. then, each child receives three gifts from mommy and daddy that represent the three gifts the wise men brought to baby jesus. of course, this year they each opened two gifts on christmas day due to "inclement weather and shipping companies." 

carter was so ecstatic that santa remembered her request for make-up 

very simple wrapping and tags this year

carter opening her most wanted request. remember how i had to hunt it down? well, when i got online to order it before thanksgiving, the blond haired, blue eyed bitty baby was on backorder until the 18th. seriously?? when i called to see about the backorder date and other options, they offered me the brown haired, brown eyed version. i responded, "that would be great if the baby i am expecting might have brown eyes, but i don't think she will." it's like the year i went to the post office to purchase christmas stamps and the disgruntled postal worker offered me stamps for hanukkah or kwanza, because they are the same. really? so, i purchased happy birthday stamps and wrote "jesus" under each one. yes, seriously.

back to the bitty baby, even though they couldn't promise the backorder date, they did tell me how to contact the store in chicago to see if they could send me one. so, the day before thanksgiving, i spent an hour and a half on the phone trying to get through to the store. ag is still such a small company that they only allow the flagship stores to mail items and they have no idea what a store has in stock. the chicago store was low in inventory as well, but they arranged for the new york store to mail me one. thank you, thank you, ag!! carter was so excited and climbed in my lap later that morning and said, "thank you, mommy for my bitty baby!" totally worth it!

look at her excitement!

miller opening his stocking

one of miller's gifts was a custom made cape. i found it at this etsy store.

when he put it on, he announced, "i need super hero eyes." guess mommy needs to bust out the sewing machine! he runs all around yelling, "super hero to the rescue!"

miller's other gift was animals. he loves animals and thought it was so great that he immediately did this: 

later that morning, we exchanged presents with my parents. 

i love the look on her face!

guess who came through for miller?? meme & papaw! they found the "choo-choo train you can ride on and say 'all aboard!'" when they brought in all the presents, carter said, "well, my present is a little big, but miller's present is giant!" 

miller taking a ride on his new train! it takes up half the playroom, but it is totally worth it!

someone else likes it, too!

these are the adorable chairs uncle chris and aunt margaret gave carter and miller. they have their names embroidered on them which they thought was so fun! note carter's socks that santa brought her. she also had on white l'amours at one point-nice ensemble, huh? we also had christmas with josh's parents, but he didn't take a single picture of the kids opening gifts. you are all probably very thankful about that right now after reading this ridiculously long post!