Falling down on the job

BOTH of my sisters have updated their blogs with pictures from Christmas Day before we've gotten ours up. Oh, the pressure!

We had a wonderful Christmas day. This was by far my favorite Christmas with Elizabeth, because she was so excited about everything. Since she can't remember anything from last Christmas, it was all brand new to her again. And, her eyes just sparkled as she took it all in. It was very special.

Elizabeth also must have been a very good girl, because Santa was very good to her.

Opening her stocking:





Laying out all her new Dora underwear from Santa (yes, this was actually one of her favorite presents!):



Excited about her Santa presents:



With her pink spotted elephant and Rudolph:



Santa didn't know it when he procured this gift, but Rudolph sang the Rudolph song VERY loudly when you pressed a switch on his ear. Elizabeth was absolutely enamored with this feature. In fact, she even brought a bunch of her other stuffed animals down to watch Rudolph put on a concert:



I don't even have an estimate of how many times Rudolph sang his song on Christmas Day, but it was a bunch. So much, in fact, that the switch broke and the song now only plays very intermittently. (And now Mommy and Daddy are singing the Hallelujah Chorus!)

Another popular gift of the day was a very pretty dress from Aunt Erin. As soon as Elizabeth opened it, she labeled it her "Princess Dress" and went in search of her princess crown and shoes as accessories:



And, in true 3-year-old fashion, one of the most popular gifts of all wasn't even intended to be a gift. It was the top of one of the candy tubes from Elizabeth's stocking. Turns out the cute kitty on top of the tube also plays a song and walks. So, bypassing the expensive learning toys we purchased, Elizabeth just wanted to play with the $1 kitty toy:



After present opening time, we went to Dad and Pat's house for brunch, which was absolutely delicious. Then, we got to open even more presents and listen to Dad play some Christmas songs on the piano. That afternoon, Mom came over to visit for a while. Then, we got busy putting Christmas decorations away.

Yesterday, we took some time out to go to the Newport Aquarium to visit with a friend of mine from our online Mommy group and her family. Then, we had a wonderful dinner with some more friends and got to play a few games with them before Elizabeth let it be known that she was definitely ready for bed.

Now, today, we're in full packing mode. We have to pack up all our wall cabinets in the kitchen today. Then, we have to pack our suitcases to get ready for our trip to Arkansas tomorrow.