The Christmas Carrolls

(Whew! The girls are in bed finally. They both have colds right now and Maddie sounds like Kathleen Turner. Very throaty. Love it.)

How was your Christmas? Ours was wonderful. We spent Christmas Eve at my mom's house where we did the whole fish thing as we Italians are wont to do. Andy's parents came and Uncle Eric was there, too.

Andy and his dad were in the garage for the beginning of the evening deep frying calamari and shrimp for us all and they came out delicious! I wish I had thought to get a picture of them doing it - they had a blast. We had a fantastic antipasta spread - my mom really outdid herself. We had so much of it, in fact, that we barely touched any of the main courses. We all sat there looking at each other with "I'm stuffed" looks on our faces. We decided then and there that we will be doing an appetizer-only Christmas Eve next year. That's where all the good stuff shows up anyway!

The girls had a blast running around my mom's condo and eating clementines. They peel them all by themselves right over the garbage can, and then section them off and eat them one by one. Delish. I asked my mom and Andy's parents if they could give the girls a present that was a toy before dinner to keep them occupied - and that kept them busy for all of 10 minutes! We fed them their spaghetti and some broccoli, and then they ate Hanukkah shortbread cookies because my father-in-law said they were the most delicious cookie at the store. I said Jesus was Jewish - so there you go. We put them up in their pack-n-plays to bed before we all sat down to eat because I actually like to sit down and eat. All the adults had a wonderful time and we opened our presents to each other so all we had to worry about the next day was the girls.

Andy's parents were sleeping over, so we all packed up and headed back home, where we proceeded to place all the girls' presents under (and around) the tree. I think I got to bed around 12:30am, which was not too bad.

The girls woke up bright and early (as usual!) and surprisingly didn't rush to the tree. They are in such a habit of walking right downstairs to the playroom to have their diapers changed and play a bit before breakfast, and this day was no different. All the adults woke up eventually and the girls started opening presents around 9am - and this went on for over two hours! NOT because they had two hours worth of gifts to open, but because they had to play with every toy right then and there before they were satisfied enough to move on to the next one! (The Blue's Clues plush were such a big hit - it took them forever to want to open another present after that!) I let them do it because they were having such a blast. We even took a cinnamon roll intermission to re-energize.

The girls would NOT take off their pj's all day. I had beautiful dresses for them to wear but they loved their Christmas pj's so everyone said to just leave them in them. So I did.

We had the same crew for Christmas Dinner, with the addition of my mom's friend who the girls call Aunt Patty. It was very nice - and it was very casual. We set the table and everything - but it was a very "take some now or take some later" event. After dinner Uncle Eric plugged in the Wii and we bowled the rest of the night - with Andy and his dad getting into it the most. Andy asked me if I wanted to get a Wii and I said "sure, right after I get my new oven." He was all, "I know, I know." It may happen soon! Both of our parents gave us gift cards to Lowe's and that will certainly help.

(We missed my brother Jeffery and his girlfriend, Heather, who live up in Vermont - and Andy's brother Matt and his wife, Jenny, who are in Mississippi. We talked to them both and maybe we will see them all for Christmas next year!)

The girls went to bed, everyone (except Andy's parents) went home - and we were all fast asleep by 10pm. Whew! (I am sure I am leaving out a bunch of things ...)

I posted a slideshow below of the best shots of the day - enjoy!