christmas 2014!

[christmas eve!]

[christmas day!]

oh, christmas! we did it! another successful holiday done and done and high five! feels good, doesn’t it? and then, oh, i love that post-christmas thing where you just want to play with all your new toys and lounge in your jams all day long after! we did a little of that friday, although, only for a few hours because then we had a plane to catch. still. love that part!

anyway, so christmas! christmas eve! one of my very favorite parts of christmas eve is getting pretty and going to the candlelight christmas eve service at church. maddalena looked like a little angel in her new dress my mom had picked up for her [i died at the fur trim!] and we headed off. during the service, madd ended up falling asleep, and missed the whole candlelight part, which she would have loved! so she got a little re-enactment action of her own before dinner with a candle my mom had snagged and some candlelight footage my sis took. that evening, stevey surprised madd and i with the best eeeever matching pink footy pajamas! aaand we were cozy all night. also, maddalena did not want to leave cookies out for santa. she wanted to leave pretend soup, and she was pretty adamant about the issue. so. that’s how that went!

the next morning, a groggy little lady excitedly discovered her little slew of christmas glory, which did indeed include “elsa, anna!” …the only wish on her list for santa claus this year! a pair of elsa and anna dolls she’d seen at the store a few weeks back was her heart’s truest desire, and i just could not waaaait for santa to bring them for her. then we all dove head first into the rest of our gifts, and hooow i love our tradition of absolute christmas chaos. gift wrapping everywhere! toys and gifts stacking! it really always looks way crazier than it is, but it feels like so much love. my mom made our fabulous christmas breakfast [another favorite tradition, of course], and we afternooned with steven’s side, where maddalena hit the gift jackpot yet again! as it should be, right? i think so.

i hope it was a merry christmas for all!

fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-LA!