Twas the Week After Christmas…

….And I still haven’t posted Christmas pictures! We have been enjoying the holidays and playing with Dad while he is home everyday on vacation.

Here is a wrap-up of Christmas Day at our house.Christmas morning we awoke to this:

A light dusting of snow giving us an official White Christmas.

And this:

A tree with bundles of presents from Santa.

And this:

One four year old anxious to get Christmas started!

Molly eagerly tore into her first present: an princess art tray.

The second thing opened was another princess gift: a write on/wipe off learning book.Molly still loves her princesses, but didn’t ask for anything princess this year. Could it be that she is growing out of this phase? (One can only hope!)

Can, I just say that I finally have Molly trained. Without prompting, Molly held up each gift and posed for a picture before moving onto the next. And to think, it only took about one million photos before she finally caught on. Mensa is knocking on the door.

Grandmom and Uncle Jack gave Molly Dinosaur Train DVDs and interactive Tiny and Buddy figures. These two toys will talk independently, but if you get the both of them together, they interact with each other. Very cool!

Molly is really interested in reading. She has one CD by Jack Hartman call Hip Hop Alpha Bop, which is driving me crazy gets a lot of play in our minivan. Santa was nice enough to bring her a new one called Shake, Rattle and Read. Thank you, Santa! You saved my sanity.

Both Tony and I have laptop computers. Molly has wanted a laptop so bad that she has us fold a piece of paper in half and draw a laptop computer on it for her. Santa, in all of his wisdom, brought Molly this bright pink laptop.

Next, was the digital picture frame. I know what you’re thinking. Why are you giving a digital picture frame to a little kid? Here’s the back story.

When we came back from our adoption trip, I put a bunch of pictures into a digital frame. Molly has watched that frame for 3 1/2 years. She knows every.single.picture. And every story behind each picture.

I really want Molly to remember our recent trip to China, so I loaded a bunch of pictures from the trip onto the frame. It is her in her room next to her bed. She absolutely loves it!

Grandma and Grandpa got Molly the much wished for American Girl Bitty Baby Twins. Oh, the joy!

Ooooh, this aught to come in handy for those Dinosaur Train DVDs.

We were getting down to the last few presents when Molly said, “Hey, what about my Snuggie? Did Santa forget my Snuggie?” No, sweet child, how could Santa forget the blanket with sleeves. Just look at that face. Pure bliss!

Here’s Molly with her presents. She oooohed and aaaahed over every single gift and was truly grateful for everything. It was heartwarming to witness. Merry Christmas, Baby!

Oh wait…we almost forgot the booty in the Christmas stocking!

Molly wrote a beautiful little story about our family, complete with illustrations, and put it into my Christmas stocking. She was so proud. And me, well how can you not cherish such a special gift.

Tony getting a little Christmas love from his baby.

Here is a few of the gifts in action:

Molly, Tiny and Buddy watching the Dinosaur Train DVD (while cuddling with the Snuggie).

Molly driving her Bitty Babies, “Anna and Luke,” to the hospital.

Molly “checkin’ her email” on Christmas morning.

Later in the day Molly and I went through the house and got rid of a bunch of old toys to make way for the new. About twice as many toys went out as came in. Yipee!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and that 2011 brings nothing but joy to you and your family.