Merry Nismass!

Avonlea Jane had been waking up progressively earlier this week, declaring, "Almost merry Nismass." She stayed up until after ten on Christmas Eve, so we thought for sure she would sleep late. However, at 5:45, we heard, "Daddy? Wake up. Merry Nismass! Open presents!" We brought her into our bed and were able to convince her to sleep for a little while longer, but we were unfortunately awake.

So we headed downstairs to make steel-cut oats for breakfast and finish watching Miracle on 34th Street. When she woke up at 8:30, we had breakfast and headed upstairs for stockings.

Avonlea Jane happily goes to put her book away in order to get her stocking.

Avonlea Jane was very excited about stockings, because she helped to pick out the stuffers for Daddy and our friend Michele. (Michele was suppose to join us Christmas morning, but had a pet emergency and unfortunately had to stay home.)

Pear chips!

Mabel is ready for her stocking.

Avonlea Jane is showing Mabel one of the treats from her stocking.

It was a good decision to put our tree upstairs, because we wouldn't have had nearly enough room for all of the presents downstairs.

Avonlea Jane was incredibly patient every day leading up to Christmas. She was more than happy to help put presents under the tree and count down the days until we could actually open them. She didn't ask for a present early, try to unwrap one, or even shake a single present until Christmas day. (Our cats are not so patient; fortunately, with the amount of presents under the tree, they had no room to get into the presents.)

Going to Daddy for help in starting to unwrap her first present

Yay, a Super Girl and Wonder Woman t-shirt!

Exploring train cars from Italy that spell out her name

Taking a pause

A new game all of her own

Someone found a package of cookies made by Auntie Hubbell and Uncle Jeff

Maxwell really wants a present

We love Richard Scarry.

When Avonlea Jane would open a new outfit, she would declare when she would wear it. This one was, "Jane wear it tomorrow." (She refers to herself as just Jane about 75 percent of the time.)

Boats: a game for the bathtub

Pretending to drink out her new personalized mug with a piggy on it, made especially for her by Hubbell

Taking a break to try on her new shoes and test drive them while dancing to Michael Bolton Christmas carols

Paints!

A new pan set for her kitchen

Wearing Daddy's rosary from the Vatican

Trying to decide what new movie to watch before lunch

Showing Daddy her new party dress

We stopped opening presents for the day at 1:30, and at least we've made a dent.

Avonlea Jane and Mommy in their matching "night owl" pajamas

Saying hello to Joe as he arrives for Christmas dinner

Helping Gail to open her Christmas present

Helping Barry

Daddy trying on a present for the little one

We had a wonderful Christmas morning, followed by lunch time and naptime before our friends (Nina, Rosanne, Joe and Carolyn, Kieran and Josh, Sam and his mom, Gail, and Barry) arrived for Christmas dinner. We had a wonderful potluck dinner followed by present opening and several rounds of game playing.