RELAXED

No surprise to her mom, but Stella freaking loves her chair. She sits in it all the time. But she did surprise me when she sat in her chair in a lounging way to enjoy a late night powdered sugar doughnut. Man this kid.

EXCHANGE

Tonight was the annual Christmas exchange night with my girls. It was a delightful evening full of food, gifts, and giggles. First we had dinner, then we made our way to check out Whitney's new condo...which is adorable I might add. Then we opened presents and enjoyed the tollhouse pie made by our very own chef Jenni. (I have two friends I steal recipes from frequently and Jenni is one of them.) We also took a minute to reminisce about some good times while watching the video Krisi made of our trip to see Donny Osmond. We have now decided that we are going to have a little getaway in 2010. Now that it is written on the blog it must happen.

CHRISTMAS CHEER

When you are someone who takes a lot of pictures, big events like Christmas can be a tad bit overwhelming. You want to take pictures and remember all the details, and it can make for an overwhelming blog post. Yet, I think many of the events that took place yesterday will be worth remembering, so it is worth it.

My mom has been talking about "what she is going to get the babies" for a while now, and it was a delight to finally see little Stella and Ava find their tricycles under the Christmas tree. Then of course they wanted to ride them, but neither of them are tall enough just yet to reach the pedals. So, it means a lot of pushing and sore backs for the adults. It is super cute however to see these easy riders on their pink and purple racers.

A while back I picked up a silly Santa hat at the dollar store, and it was my Christmas wish to get a picture of everyone in the hat. I wish the girls would have played along, but they were MUCH too busy with other distractions.

Keep your eye out for Candy Cane Twist (or Bop Bop, as Stella calls him). My dear friend Crystal brought him over to my house on a particularly tough day around Thanksgiving to cheer me up. He dances and sings and Stella has gotten so used to him now that when you sing the opening line "Well, I've got a new dance and it goes like this," Stella responds with "Bop bop bop...." Unfortunately for everyone, she STILL cannot figure out how to make him sing on her own and sometimes we just have to tell her that "Bop Bop went ni-night" to get her to stop. My dad had yet to meet CCT so I brought him over to do a little jig for Pops.

Opening the presents with the little ones continued to be very entertaining. Highlights were:

• After Stella opened up a matching purse to Ava's, little Ava snatched Stella's purse and took off with both of them.
• Beth made Ava a felt book spelling out her name just like Stella's book.
• Mom's Juicy flip flops from Ashley.
• Brent's car has been missing one hubcap for a while now. Every year since for his birthday or Christmas my dad has always hoped that his gift is a hubcap for Brent's car. Which of course, we couldn't care less about. But this year we finally listened. He loved it.
• Ava got a chair just like Stella's from her auntie. Wrapped with love by her uncle Brent.
  
• Brent got way more DVDs than he could have hoped for.

Uncle Tyler made his nieces cards and the inside poems were particularly charming.

Stella's card:

Stella the star,
that is what you are,
keep your holiday cheer,
all through the year

Ava's card:

Crazy Ava,
always on the Go, Go, Go.
This Christmas stay jolly
keep saying HO, HO, HO!

The girls had a tremendous time together and after opening a few gifts they sneaked off to play. They would pretend to run on the treadmill, then sit and rest and giggle to each other. Then they would do it again. When Stella calls for Ava it sounds like: "Wawa, Wawa!" It is pretty freaking adorable to watch those two kick it old school.

Mostly for me, I couldn't stop looking at my beautiful daughter and marvel at her adorableness. She charms me at every turn and I LOVED spending Christmas with Stella. Knowing her grandpa was there with us only made it that more delightful.

Now if only my brother-in-law's car had NOT been stolen from my driveway Christmas night it would have been an absolutely perfect day. Merry Christmas from our empty driveway to yours.

A PERFECT CHRISTMAS MORNING

This just in--Miss Stella Sallay woke up Christmas morning knowing that something special was in the air. Usually she just lays down in her crib waiting for her mother to fetch her, but this morning she was alert and standing in her crib ready for the excitement that accompanies Christmas morning. She ran down the hall and looked down at the Christmas tree to find that Santa had come! Ever the patient child, Stella opened her smaller presents first, saving her biggest present for last. She opened all of her gifts with the skill of a much older child, ripping and saying "ooooh" and "aahhh" with each opened surprise. Meanwhile, her father, Brent Sallay, caught all the action on video. Finally, it was time to find out what was hiding in the big present. Hooray! Her dreams had come true--a chair just her size! She climbed into it immediately and happily discovered that it was the perfect fit. It was a terribly delightful Christmas morning at the home of the Sallay family. This has been Michelle Sallay, reporting for The Sallay Daily.

CHRISTMAS EVE

Growing up, every year on Christmas Eve I couldn't believe it was time to put out the curb candles again (a tradition in my parents' neighborhood). Christmas was always here again so fast. Tonight we went over to my parents' house and I made lasagna. Brent's parents and sister Kathy also joined us. It was a fun little night, and especially fun to have everyone together as a family.

Stella was still totally skilled at unwrapping presents. When she unwrapped a gift (that was technically Ava's) to find a play phone inside she was thrilled. That was UNTIL her dad took too long to get the phone out of its packaging, and we soon discovered the downside to giving presents to 18 month olds.

Right now Stella is asleep, snug in her bed with sugar plums and kid movies on Blu-ray dancing in her head.