Merry Christmas!

Christmas was a lot of fun this year. It was a magical holiday for Allie since it was the first year that she really could understand anything about Santa. She was so excited for Santa to come. She loved the Christmas music, decorating the tree, putting up the stockings, and the anticipation of opening her presents. It was also special because it was Rachel's first Christmas.

When we pulled out the Christmas decorations, we came across our baby Santa hat. You can't see the hat very well in this picture, but Rachel looked so cute in it.

Allie loved wearing a Santa hat, too. Here she is in front of our little tree and stockings.

Here's a picture of what the girls saw Christmas morning after Santa had come, minus Allie's gift from Santa, which was just to the right of where the picture ends.

Santa brought Allie two Zhu Zhu pet hamsters with a little habitat, including a wheel and a boat. She wasn't sure about them when first seeing them, but she grew to enjoy them quickly. They move around and make noises, mostly funny ones like a motorcycle sound or a cow's moo. Here she is right after waking up and sitting down by them to check them out.

Santa brought Rachel a little stuffed giraffe and a new snuggly bear. She was happy and very cute with both.

The girls then looked in their stockings to find more goodies.

Santa left Allie her own Santa hat, which she didn't really understand for awhile. She kept on saying she needed to give it back. It may be because we have a book in which Santa leaves his hat and the little kid wants to put it somewhere he'll find it. But she was still very happy with it, as well as the other things she found inside.

Santa left Rachel some fun goodies, too, including some squeaky teething toys. Her favorite was probably the little sea horse pictured below. It is made so that it easily squeaks when she chews on it. Sadly, we have actually lost this in the last few months. I think it fell out of the car seat somewhere. We got an orange fish that is made by the same company to replace it, but the sea horse is definitely missed by all.

We had a Secret Santa this year, who dropped some gifts off by our door and ran after knocking. It was so sweet. It was exciting to have some gifts under the tree that were a surprise to everyone. Allie got a cute baby doll from our Secret Santa. It was cute to see her cuddle it and feed it right away.

Both girls got books from Grandma Terri. They both love books, so it was great.

Rachel also got some pajamas from Grandma Terri. They are super soft and cute. Rachel has gotten to wear them a lot.

And, of course, Rachel loved the wrapping paper. It is always one of the favorite parts of Christmas for babies. It was no different for Rachel. She actually did pretty well ripping some of it off to open presents.

Rachel got some soft blocks from Grandma and Grandpa Bobbie. Two of them make crinkly noises, and two have little bells inside. Rachel has enjoyed them quite a bit.

Both girls got ornaments this year. We try to pick one out that relates to the previous year. For Allie, we chose an ice cream cone ornament for a couple of reasons. The first is that it has been a great motivator for potty training, especially at the beginning. It kind of represents the progress made in that area. Also, we discovered her love of ice cream. Who doesn't love ice cream, right? But not all little girls yell at their cousins over ice cream like Allie did last May when we visited Washington. You don't come between Allie and ice cream. She loved the ornament, too.

Rachel's ornament was a baby's first ornament. It is a baby snowman in a buggy. We got it because her stocking has a snowman on it, and we thought it would be cute for them to go together. It is a little hard to see in the picture below. We wish they had had a pink option, but they only had blue.

The girls got gifts from each other. We let Allie pick out Rachel's gift at the store, and we chose one of the gifts we had purchased to be from Rachel. They have both loved the gifts from each other. The video below shows them getting their gifts from each other. Allie got a little Santa toy. It is actually an ornament, but Allie doesn't know the difference. She loves playing with it. Rachel got a teething rattle toy.

Another little video, which shows Allie with a glow baby that sings from Grandma and Grandpa Bobbie. Rachel is trying to eat one of her presents.

We got Allie some Hello Kitty boots at a consignment sale. She was excited to put them on and immediately wanted to go outside.

We knew that Grandma Terri and Grandpa Carpenter were getting Allie a Radio Flyer horse. There was no doubt that Allie would be so excited about it. We figured we would save it for last so that she would open all her other gifts. The next few videos show her excitement as she opened it, wanted us to set it up, and rode it for the first time.

When riding Blaze the first time, she was a little hesitant, but it didn't take long for her to start riding him really fast and doing tricks on him.

We really had a wonderful Christmas. We were grateful for the love and generosity of friends and family. It was really such a special time. And Allie still talks about what Santa brought her, though she now tends to say that everything was from him, even toys she has had for a long time. She keeps asking for Christmas again.