Christmas 2009: Reindeer Games

Years from now, this Christmas shall be looked back upon as "The One With the Games" (what, you don't name your memories like "Friends" episodes??). Keira hit the magical age of 3 just in time for the holidays, and we all took advantage of an excuse to buy her games galore: Memory, Yahtzee, Dominos (all Disney Princess editions, of course!), Ele-fun, Gone Fishin', and Hi-Ho Cherry-O. According to the commercials, playing games with your preschooler is a great way to bond as a family, and to teach important skills like teamwork and patience. I'm pretty sure the patience part is referring to the parents--just ask Bear, who played Hi-Ho Cherry-O with Keira upwards of 189 times on Christmas Day, and numerous times since!

Bear and I are definitely going to need to get our act together before next Christmas, or Keira's bound to go Nancy Drew on our arses, and the jig will be up before she hits kindergarten. We told her totally conflicting stories about who fills Mommy and Daddy's stockings (Mommy and Daddy, or Santa), and I announced to Bear over the phone that I was "almost done putting the roof on the dollhouse," unaware that he had me on speaker phone with Keira in the room. We also forgot a few presents in the trunk of the car and had to bust them out, unwrapped, halfway through Christmas Day, and totally forgot to leave cookies out for Santa. Oops. (Since Santa is diabetic, this was probably for the best, anyway.)

In any case, we had a great three-day avarice festival, featuring Christmas Eve at Grandma Marmee and Pop-Pop's, Christmas Day at our house with Grammy, Grampy, Aunt Jen, and Uncle Ryan, and then Christmas II with Grandma W., Pap-Pap, and Uncle Nick the following day. Mass quantities of food, calories, and packages were devoured, and all of it was delicious.

How about some pics?




"All I got in that stocking was a couple of Binkies and some freakin' Puffs?!"


How cute are these tights??

How is it that someone who couldn't stand Michael Jordan gave birth to two children who do MJ tongues all the time?

Thanks so much to all the grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends who made this Christmas so much fun for us and the girls!