Finally! The Christmas Morning Post...better late than never!

This year Molly got Christmas. She understood Santa, knew about presents, was full of excitement about decorations and lights, and was thrilled that she got to eat way more sugar than I have ever allowed. Needless to say, she thoroughly enjoyed the entire holiday season.
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One of the great things about being a parent is that you get to relive your childhood through the eyes of your children. It is funny to see how different Molly is from me as a child at Christmastime:

• Me as a child: Up at the crack of dawn (or before) on Christmas morning, dragging my parents from bed so that I could see what Santa had brought.
• Molly: Slept until 9:30 at which time we finally went into her room and woke her up so that she could see what Santa has brought.
• Me as a child: Viewed unwrapping Christmas presents as a sprint—“Let’s get these babies open and see what’s inside!”
• Molly: Viewed unwrapping presents as a marathon—“Let’s see how long I can make this last.”
• Me as a child: Had most of the candy in my stocking consumed before breakfast.
• Molly: Was content to suck on a single candy cane for most of the day.
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  At about 9:45 am, Molly did finally make it downstairs.

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She was thrilled to see what was waiting under the tree for her.

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She immediately spied her the tricycle from Grandmas and Grandpa and was content to just examine, explore and try out her new wheels for hours:
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We practically had to beg her to open more gifts. When she finally conceded, she wanted to open them while on the tricycle and play with them from the tricycle seat.
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She even tried a few stunts on her new bike:

Remember how I said that Molly view opening gifts as a marathon? I think I completed my entire marathon in a shorter amount of time than it took Molly to open her gifts. Yes, it was a 4+ hour extravaganza! Molly even needed to stop at the feed zone half way through to take on additional calories for the rest of the race.

Of course this was all done while remaining on the trike:
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We finally convinced her to take a break from her trike and open a few gifts sans wheels. She was thrilled with her new Hello Kitty CD player from Aunt Shel and family. She pretty much had mastered its operation before it was even out of the box:

She was also eager to try on items from her dress up treasure chest, given to her by the Southcott's. And by the way, high heels are the appropriate footwear to accompany Santa pajamas.

Notice how the colors of the bracelets pick up on the PJ's polka dots. And pearls? They're a classic. They go with anything, dahling!

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At the end of the marathon, it was obvious from the prize package that Molly was the winner!

But wait! There's more! Molly's victory lap...digging through the goodies in her stocking. This took another 1/2 hour. Our girl certainly has a flair for the dramatics.

Molly finally finished with Christmas morning just in time for her afternoon nap.

And when she awoke, what did she find? Round 2!! Grandmom, Uncle Jack and Aunt Karen had arrived for Christmas dinner, and they came bearing gifts! The doll house from Auntie Molly, Uncle Eli, Grandmom and Uncle Jack was every bit the hit in the evening that the tricycle was earlier in the day:

Yes, you could say that Molly, really got Christmas this year,in more ways than one!

Thank you to everyone who helped to make this a magical Christmas for little Miss Molly. It is one that she'll never forget.