a special gift...

Grandma Vicki helped the girls make us a very special Christmas gift...

Very, very adorable!

3x a broken tooth!

You may recall that Elly fell in October and broke her tooth...we took her to the dentist and they put some resin on it and fixed it. We discovered the day we left for SDC (12/12) that Elly had broken her tooth again! It was not bothering her and she had a cleaning appointment scheduled for 12/29 so we waited... She had her tooth fixed again (this time for no charge...hallelujah!) on Monday. We discovered tonight (12/31) that it is broken AGAIN. What the heck?

a doggy Christmas...

Polly is enjoying her new rope & bone that Santa brought her... ...and she LOVES the new toy that Grandma Vicki bought her. The other day she even took a nap with it! (I will try to get a picture soon...)

celebrating...

We took off for A-town around 11:45am Christmas Day. We spent the afternoon with my dad's family. Such fun times with lots of cousins to cause trouble with, lots of yummy food, and now that the girls are older...I get to spend some good quality time chatting with my family. Oh, and playing card games, too. I so cherish those times together.

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We arrived at Grandma Vicki's house in the evening. The girls were tired & hungry...

Grandma Vicki made a birthday cake for Jesus! Yum! The next morning, the girls helped Grandma Vicki & Aunt Katy make us a special breakfast. It was delicious! Opening a sister gift from Grandma Vicki...

Playing Whac-a-mole with Aunt Katy!

Bumper cars!

Jingle Bells! (Maddy did this on her own...she ran around grandma's house jingling all over!)

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On Friday afternoon, the girls & I took off to see my Grandma Jean and Aunt Cindy. My grammy was not feeling too good but it was good to see her. Our time with Cindy was limited because she had another Christmas celebration to attend.

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We went to pick up daddy at 4pm (who was having fun with his good friend, Brad!) and ended up playing with the H's new wii for 2 hours! Such fun!

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We took off for E-town about 7pm...

Good thing we took the 3rd seat out of the van...I don't think we could have fit one more thing!

Christmas morning...

We spent Christmas morning at home. We opened up presents, listened to holiday music, ate sticky buns & breakfast casserole. We just relaxed and enjoyed each other...

Elly checked to see if Santa came...

She was excited about her new Dora toothbrush... ...and her very own flashlight! Maddy was thrilled about her new pink vest! She danced around trying to get it on...

She was also excited about her illumination station...very cool for someone who told me she wants to be an artist when she grows up! Good thing Elly got her some paints for Christmas, too! :) Elly was hoping Santa would bring her a scooter!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Wade girls!

He came...

The Stockings were hung...

Goodbye, Twinkle.

It is our last night with Twinkle...

They blew him kisses and whispered goodbye...

They are really sad to see him go. :(

Christmas Eve.

After the girls' baths, we bundled them up in their new jammies & headed out to look at Christmas lights. We had a great time singing Christmas carols...

Preparing a plate of cookies for Santa...hope he is hungry!

Maddy carried the plate of cookies...

...Elly carried his milk.

The girls set out some oats for the reindeer.

Santa jams

Santa always drops off new jammies for the girls before he starts his rounds...we never catch him...although Maddy thought she saw his sleigh in the afternoon sky!

The girls were excited that Mrs. Claus made them nightgowns this year. They have never had Christmas nightgowns!

Cookies for Santa...

Elly did more licking than frosting!

Santa & the Train

We took the girls to see Santa on Monday. We waited in line 1 hour & 42 minutes to see Santa. I know. We are crazy. The girls were really good. We ate Topsy's popcorn. Yum! The girls danced...

peeked in Santa's window...

and checked out the laughing Santa.

Once inside, the girls got to go through Santa's playground...

looked in the funny mirrors...

Look at that smile! And, finally...

Santa. The girls enjoyed a very long conversation with him. I heard Elly mention a scooter.

I heard Santa mention good behavior.

The girls showed off their sparkly fingernails.

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Only afterwards, did Maddy tell me that she did not get to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas. Oh, I felt so bad...what to do? We went to Fritz's and only waited 26 minutes in line. And, I thought. The girls enjoyed their engineer hats & loved watching for the little train to brings us our food. We had cheeseburgers & fries. Maddy was excited to take our food off.

**********We had a wonderful day! We decided to send a note with Twinkle seeing as how he flies to the north pole every night. Maddy seemed content with that. :)