toddlers are fun at Christmas

On Christmas Eve, we worked hard after bedtime to help Santa set up the kitchen for the best effect.

This picture is pretty much taken from Natalie's bedroom doorway.
And sure enough, on Christmas morning, promptly at 6:30, our little elf woke up and we let her out of her cage... I mean, crib.

She groggily checked out the tree, and then stumbled right over to the little kitchen. Doesn't our kid have the best bed-head you've ever seen?!
And then she gave me this look.

Sometimes I wish she could be this age forever! So the kitchen was a hit.

And then we moved on to stockings, (I realize it still says "Baby's 1st", but I promise, this year I'll get around to making her a forever stocking.)
And had a little breakfast. After some sustanance, (and coffee), we moved on to opening presents. Natalie got the hang of this pretty darn quick. By the time her presents were all done she was ready to move on to everyone elses.
But she was patient and waited until my parents arrived to open any more.
After second breakfast, and a little nap, Natalie was ready to get over to my Aunt's house. If we could only find her...
We made it over there, and had a nice hearty Italian dinner. Halfway through, Natalie wanted to eat with Kenz, (she might have just been after the spaghetti - I'd served her lasagna).


And then we enjoyed more presents. Natalie was again very patient and helped Lara pass them out. She was a little stumped by my four, nearly adult male cousins. All with similar hair colors and style, three of whom just flew in from Wisconsin the day before, (and she hasn't seen since she was seven months old!) But she did her best.
And then, since Natalie was the youngest, she got to open the first present. Don't be too impressed, that lasted about two minutes.
Natalie spent the rest of the night playing with Kenz's new Barbie Dream House with Kenz and Steph. The rest of us spent the next few hours eating dessert, drinking coffee, and playing game after game of "Catch Phrase". It got pretty wild, I must say.

By the end of the night Natalie was positively pooped, and almost ready to admit she was ready to leave.

I wish you could have all been there. But if you weren't, hopefully your Christmas was as nice.