christmas eve/morning rundown

i wanted to get a quick post of our christmas eve/morning up before we headed out on our grand tour of the south tomorrow, so here it is!

christmas eve was rainy and gross, so we stayed dry at home until time for the candlelight service at church. last year, faith didn't do so well at the whole "stay quiet and still" thing, so we spent most of it in the hallway or bathroom. this year, we had the benefit both of aunt lisa's iphone with puzzle game and her best buddies caitlin and erik, which made everyone happy!

after service, we came home and she opened her christmas eve present, new pjs! this year's version are in honor of her very favorite christmas movie, how the grinch stole christmas, and have cindy lou who all over them! just like last year, we must have watched that movie fifty times! we did try the jim carrey version of the grinch, which faith deemed "too scary," so we're sticking with the boris karloff version around here :)

after changing into the pjs, we made santa some special cookies with red and white sprinkles, watched a few christmas specials, put out the cookies and milk on the hearth, and finally put faith to bed, far too late!

after her late night, faith didn't get up until nearly 9:30, which was fine with her parents! she was so excited to see that santa had come with presents and had left a little note thanking her for the snack we left! he even forgot to close the little doors on our fireplace on his way out, she said we'd have to remind him to do that next year. :)

faith got lots of great presents and was so excited opening them all! she even got into the obligatory "hold up the present and smile" posing, although some of the smiles look a little pained, ha!

one of the things she got this year was an american girl doll! this one happened to have been given to her mama (when she was already a bit old for such things, love you mom!), and faith was so excited when she opened the vintage suitcase she was stored in (with all of her accessories!) she keeps saying, " i love her, mama! addy's so sweet!" love it! (and it's preschool approved, yay multiculturalism!)

(in their christmas dresses)

after presents, mama made doughnuts for breakfast, which thanks to her surprise present from zee (awesome deep fryer!!) was super easy and fun! we had cinnamon sugar and powdered sugar on the doughnuts and vanilla glaze on the doughnut holes! we made christmas doughnuts last year too, but sans deep fryer they didn't turn out so well. this year, they were fabulous, and of course faith had more than her fair share!!

duly hopped up on sugar, we spent the rest of the morning/early afternoon playing with all of faith's toys and listening to christmas music. mama made a late lunch of creamy macaroni and cheese, black-eyed peas, brown sugar-glazed ham and rolls, then we all took a nap!

not a bad way to spend christmas day, if you ask me!