Christmas Part III : Christmas Morning - Santa Came

Melanie has basically no understanding of Santa as of yet.  We just haven't really addressed the topic, which is fine by me.  We briefly touched on the subject before going to a Cocoa and Cookies with Santa party at a friends house earlier in the month, but that didn't really help because she still cried when we took her to sit on Santa's lap :P  As we were getting the girls ready for bed on Christmas Eve we got to thinking that we should probably mention good ol' St. Nick again since Melanie is starting to form memories, so as Matt helped Melanie brush her teeth I frantically looked around for our copy of  "Twas the Night Before Christmas" )since that book refers to him as St. Nick at least part of the time, which we'd prefer to be the title we use), but to no avail (still can't find it, as a matter of fact!)  So we had to wing it, but figured it wouldn't really matter what we said because Melanie was tired, so we didn't try too hard.

We kept the gifts simple, but in the future I think we may try to go with getting each of them just three gifts from St. Nick.  The Wise Men gave Jesus three gifts, so why not use the same number for us as well?  Keeps things simple and the kids expectations realistic.   And when you add in all the stuff other people want to get for them (assuming I don't poo-poo their ideas - hi Mom!), I just don't see how we can realistically keep up that pace!

We planned on going to 9:00am mass, so we got the girls up about 30 minutes earlier than usual, which was bright and early at 7:50am, to see what St. Nick had brought. 

We got Melanie up and told her St. Nick had come while she was sleeping and left some presents for her.  It was kinda cute to watch her come down the stairs, obviously not knowing what to expect.

Still not quite awake.

Starting to wake up and get excited about some new books

Check out my slipper boots!

(She really likes these and has asked to wear them out of the house.  If only they had hard soles...)

Melanie giving Claire one of her presents from St. Nick while wearing her new hat and mittens.

Claire also really enjoyed the book.  It played "Silent Night", and musical toys/books always seem to be a hit with our girls.

A spontaneous "I love you dad!" and hug - it's nice to get those every once in a while without having to ask for it :)

And a couple pictures in front of the tree before it's time to get ready for the real celebration - Mass!