We have had a wonderful, magnificent, amazing Christmas! My family was all healthy and happy. The girls had such a great time everywhere we went and they loved their presents.
On Christmas Eve we went to the Coopers. We had supper with Grandma Sherrel, Grandpa Clarence, and Uncle Craig and Aunt LuAnn. It was a good meal and then we had birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. The girls thought that was especially exciting and Maleah was thrilled that she got to blow out the candles again this year. I have a feeling that next year her sister might give her a run for her money on that one. But we'll see.
After supper we opened gifts. Maleah had been asking "how much longer 'til we open gifts?" and "can we open presents now?" for like two hours so we finally quit torturing her and started opening all of the gifts that had piled up in the living room. Maleah got a really cool Tinkerbell video game (sort of like a wii) that Aunt Kay had sent to her. She loves it! She got new camouflage hunting clothes from Craig and LuAnn. She had asked for those because she really wants to go hunting with her Dad and learn to shoot her gun. So, needless to say, she was excited. From Grandma Sherrel and Grandpa Clarence she got a rubber stamp set that she really loves too. She walked away with a ton of other stuff from her grandparents and her aunt and uncle. But I think these things were her faves.
Carissa got a tea set and a sit n' spin from Grandma Sherrel and Grandpa Clarence that she really likes. Aunt Kay sent her a very cute little baby doll. And Craig and LuAnn got her a Moon in My Room. That girl is crazy about the moon. Maleah always was too and when she was that age Craig got her a Moon in My Room too. It was a hit with both girls. It is a moon that hangs on their bedroom walls and lights up and actually goes through the moon cycle. So sometimes it's a full moon, other times it's not. Very cool gift. She also got lots of other things from Grandma and Grandpa and Craig and LuAnn but I think these things are her favorites so far.
So that brings us to Christmas morning. I think it was probably the most anticipated and the most exciting Christmas morning that this house has ever seen. Maleah was so so so excited! She woke up at 7:10 and came in my room to inform me that Santa had indeed been there and left her a scooter! The one she really wanted! (whew!) She needed me to get up right away so she could show me. Well, me being the incredibly vain mother that I am was not going into the living room, in front of the video camera, until I put my makeup on and a bra on. So, I got up, put my makeup on, got dressed for the day, etc and Jason showered and got ready as well. This was probably the longest twenty minutes of Maleah's little life. But she didn't complain. She was all smiles and was talking a mile a minute. I had to wake poor little Carissa up. She didn't understand the excitement and was a little aggravated that her sleep was cut short (like mother, like daughter, huh?). All she wanted was a cup of chocolate milk and to watch Dora for the next 20 minutes. All of the stuff sitting in the living room floor did not even faze her. She could've cared less that there was an Elmo doll and a Dora chair sitting right in front of her. She wanted her milk and she wanted to watch tv! No ifs, ands, or buts! She eventually woke up a little and got happy. She decided that as a matter of fact she would like to open some presents. Maleah loved her pink scooter that Santa brought her! He had a really really hard time finding that after Walmart.com lost the one that had been ordered in November. With only a few days left 'til Christmas he had to hustle to find it but thankfully his supplier (known as the Fairview Heights K-Mart to us) had it in stock. She also loved the cardboard playhouse that you can color on that Santa brought. And he also brought her a Hello Kitty Build-A-Bear. Carissa decided that she loved that Dora chair and Elmo doll from Santa. She loves Melmo (Elmo). Santa also brought her a Little People ride-on car. It's pretty cute.
Maleah's other favorites on Christmas morning were a Hello Kitty water dispenser for her room and a Hello Kitty Nintendo DS. Carissa's other favorites were her very own remote control (she loves remotes!) and a stuffed Boots doll. They got a lot of stuff but these were the ones their faces really lit up over.
After we opened up all of the presents, we loaded up the car and went to Grandma Debby and Grandpa David's for breakfast. It was delicious, as always. The girls got tons of gifts there too and got to see their cousin Chloey. I think Maleah's favorite thing there was the pink mp3 player that Grandpa pre-loaded all of her favorite songs onto. Her playlist includes Justin Bieber (Oh Baby, Baby!), Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (Dance Little Jean), Johnny Cash, Beach Boys, and many more. It's a real variety. She hasn't hardly taken that thing out of her ears in the past few days. Carissa's favorite thing there was probably a Dora book that came with little tiny Dora characters to play with. Now we have mini Boots, mini Dora, mini Benny, etc, all over the house. Carissa loves them so if I step on one I will try to remember that. We had a really nice time at Mom and Dad's. We all got really nice gifts but the girls were getting tired so we headed home.
Carissa went back to bed. Jason took a nap on the couch. Maleah "just rested" because "I AM NOT going to go to sleep". And I put everything away and took down the Christmas trees and Christmas decorations. I can not stand my house being that cluttered and with all of the gifts being opened it was extremely cluttered. Our living room really isn't that big. We had the tree up, a four foot by four foot playhouse in the middle of the room, a stack of boxes, two trash bags full of paper, a scooter, a ride-on car, an extra chair, and a partridge in a pear tree in our living room. Mama had a lot of work ahead of her. So I cleaned. I felt much better when everything was put away. So our Christmas tree was down by 2 p.m. on Christmas Day and I couldn't have been any happier. I also made about three dozen deviled eggs during that time. By the time our four o'clock Oestreich Christmas rolled around I was starting to feel slightly exhausted.
The Oestreich Christmas was fun and the food was delicious. My cousin Amanda gave the five girl cousins a nice picture frame that said "cousins" on it to each one of us and in it was a picture of the five of us with Grandma Rose on her 80th birthday last year. We all decided that we didn't like that old picture that much so we decided to take a new one to put in the frame. It turned out pretty good. My Mom and her three sisters decided to have their picture taken with Grandma too. My Mom has four brothers as well but we didn't do a group shot of all of them. My Uncle Randy is in China right now and couldn't be there with us. We all really missed him.
Front L to R: Hillary Halsey, Grandma Rose Oestreich, Andrea Rinehart
Back L to R: Abby Kitley, Me, and Amanda Oestreich
Front L to R: My mom, Debby Devore, Grandma Rose, Angie Connell
Back L to R: Lori VanDyke, Patty Loehr
On Sunday morning we all went to church and the girls got to wear their Christmas dresses. I did not get a good picture of them together but they looked beautiful. Here is Carissa in her's.
On Sunday afternoon we went over to Craig and LuAnn's to play their new Wii. We had a great time! The funny thing was that there was a ton of static electricity in the room and Carissa's hair was a wild mess. We all got a good laugh at Rissy's funny hair.
It was a super fun weekend. Jason was able to be off of work on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday so that was a nice treat too. I don't know if that's ever happened at Christmas before. We are still having a clutter problem here at the house. I keep putting toys away but they keep reappearing. Is it possible that they are multiplying?? I don't know but I wish Maleah would leave for a few hours so I could throw a bunch of the old stuff out. We have too many toys. That is for sure.
I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's!!!
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