The final Christmas installment

Ahhh, what you have been waiting for...the final chapter of Christmas 2008. I wonder how many of you are foregoing New Years activities just for this.

Zero of you, I'm sure.

Santa was good to the girls this year. They both got chairs with their names on them. Same color chair, same color thread for their names. Santa must have looked into the future and saw potential arguments(I wanted purple...she always gets the best things, it's not fair!). Smart man, that Santa.

They also got many, many other little things. The little blocks that were an after-thought turned out the be the favorite gift. Go figure.

While Nora was playing with her loot on Christmas morning, Matthew and Elyn made pancakes.

Pretty impressive, huh? Did you know that Matthew is actually a pancake artist? Truly he is. And the molds from Williams-Sanoma don't hurt either.

It took forever for Nora to sit in her chair. Finally, as we were about to pack everything up, she sat in it.

We left our house after lunch on Christmas Day to travel to Little Rock to be with Matthew's family. Wait, you are saying, didn't you just spend several days with them in Fort Smith. Yes, faithful reader, you are correct.

Matthew's younger sister, Julia, is pregnant (due Feb.3) and her mean ole' doc put her on bedrest. Since she was not able to join in on the fun in Fort Smith, we decided to bring the fun to her. Matthew's mom/stepdad, older sister (Beth), and brother (Aaron) all met up in LR.

As mentioned in a previous post, we took Nora to the Dollar Store to pick out gifts for everyone. Here she is handing out her gifts...

Uncle Aaron received a tape measure. How handy.

Aunt Julia got clips...or as the package called them "Eye Candy".
Uncle Brian got a massive sponge to wash his car with. Nora insisted on calling it a dishwasher though. He can wash plenty of dishes with that.
Aunt Beth got nail polish...BLUE nail polish.

She picked out plastic dinosaurs especially for Grandpa. Look how sweet she is here. She is so excited about the dinosaurs and can't quit smiling at them.

And finally, Gram got magnets in the shape of flowers that she can put pictures in.

And since Nora and Elyn hadn't gotten enough stuff already, they got to open presents again! This whole Christmas, every time Elyn opened a gift, she was so proud of herself when she would rip off the paper.

This is a fun gift that they got. Drums. Loads of fun for the ears. Inside the drum are more instruments. More fun for the ears.

Gram and Grandpa gave Nora this Snow White dress-up dress. Nora is almost at the age where she wants to start dressing up. I'm thinking this dress might push her towards changing her clothes 4-5 times a day.

Elyn wanted it OFF!

The morning after we were blessed to open the drum present we had a jam session. Just about everyone in the family had an instrument and showed some major skill. Watch our Jonas Brothers...you've got some major competition!

Where was Uncle Aaron when all this excitement was going on? 10 feet away, sound asleep. That takes some serious talent and years of dedication to be able to sleep while all that racket was going on.

One of the gifts in the girls stockings was a mitten/hat combo. Sadly, my girls have inherited the "Henderson Head". It's huge. When I buy them winter hats, I usually skip right over the "Toddler" sized ones and head straight for normal ones. The mittens fit though.

Santa brought "Hi Ho Cherry-O" to Nora and we broke it out while at Aunt Julia/Uncle Brian's house. Gangsta' Nora enjoyed playing it.

Matthew, Beth, and I drove to Searcy to see Papa and Grandma. It was a very relaxing visit and I'm sure the reason for that is because we left Nora and Elyn in LR. See Grandma's head...that's where my girls get it.

Remember the blue nail polish that Nora gave Aunt Beth? She broke it out and painted Nora's toe nails and finger nails. There is nothing more precious than seeing two-year-old run around with sparkly blue polish on. All she needed was a smocked dress and three-inch heels to complete the look.

Not wanting Aunt Beth to feel left out of her own present Nora offered to give her a pedi/mani too.

She did a great job, don't you think.

There you have it, our Christmas. Fun, fun, fun! We enjoyed all of our family and can't wait for next year!

Part two

I'm back with another Christmas update. Sadly, I don't think I'll finish my updates before 2009 comes. Maybe while I am waiting for the ball to drop tonight I can finish up. Maybe.

We left our house for Ft. Smith on the 21st to celebrate with Matthew's family. One of our indoor activities was a visit to Chuck E. Cheese. It's a good thing there were some indoor activities because it was super cold and raining the first few days we were there.

Nora's first time to ride the "big" horse.

Keeping up with Elyn at CEC is like trying to keep up with a tornado. Here she is taking a 2 second rest.

The majority of the Willis clan gathered at Grandma's for a Christmas Eve Eve dinner and game night.

We also exchanged some gifts. Nora loved the presents she opened! She loved her tea set and insisted that it be right beside her when she went to bed that night.

Another favorite was the Dora bathwand.

Matthew's mom took Nora to the store so she could pick out presents for us. I had just opened mine, a future garage sale item, a ceramic fruit basket. Now before you judge me for even THINKING about putting a 25 cent sticker on my Christmas gift and getting rid of it, let me explain. I have a picture of the present, I have the memory of her giving it to me, I do not have empty closets or extra storage room. Honestly, when she is 25 and helping me go through old boxes and she finds the ceramic fruit basket, she will look at me and say, "What is THIS mom?" And I will tear up and say, "You gave that to me the Christmas that you were two." She will probably say, "That's sweet, how much do you want to sell it for?".

For her daddy? A ceramic duck. It's up to him what he chooses to do with it.

We got a group picture. The following pictures are the outtakes. I realized, after downloading all my pictures, I didn't include the "real" one. Now, I don't have the energy to add it and then go back and re-space everything else. Imagine, a group picture of everyone smiling. With me.

We came back home on the 24th to have our own family time. We started the evening by making our dinner of pizzas.

One second after I snapped this picture, Mr. Smiley-face pizza started to slide off of the stone. Thankfully, we were able to do some surgery and he cooked in the oven nicely.

After cleaning up the pizza mess, we started making the cookies for Santa. Poor Elyn, she was confined to her highchair for all cooking. Just wait until next year kiddo.

Look at the icing on those cookies. I would be lying to you if I told you that Santa ate them. He took one look at the inch thick icing and tossed them in the trash.

Before the girls got their baths, we had a mini present exchange. Nora is showing Elyn the new sippy cup she got for her. It truly is Elyn's new favorite cup.

One of my gifts was a pedicure spa with the promise of a pedicure from Matthew. Looking forward to it!

Ready for bed (and a haircut for Elyn...it's just a matter of weeks before I cave in and get her hair trimmed.).

Leaving the cookies for Santa.
Okay, one part left. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow.