MORE CHRISTMAS

After a successful morning of opening gifts at our house, we headed out to my parents' house for some more fun. The first present that Stella got was a pretend microphone from Ava that lit up and sang "Bibbidy-Bobbidy-Boo," which we were able to hear over and over again, often in stereo since Ava also had one and loved hers as well. Stella rarely put it down the whole rest of the day, which made it a little bit trickier to open gifts since she only had one hand at her disposal.

Some other Christmas highlights were:

• Grandma bought both girls huge princess blankets, but both my dad and I loved them. We were spotted snuggling with them at various points throughout the rest of the day.
• Me scoring a "slam dunk" (as Ashley called it) by getting my dad a book featuring pictures of Salt Lake City "then and now."
• My dad bought a book for Riley that my mom saw and said she wanted so he wrapped it and gave it to her. Then, unknowingly I bought that same book for Riley so he got it anyway.
• The Tinkerbell umbrellas were a hit...literally. They hit all of us, and Ava even knocked down the tree as she walked by it with her open umbrella.
• The girls loved their big presents from Santa. Ava got a computer, and Stella the cash register that she has wanted forever.

Later that night we had an informal ham dinner, and my grandpa and Brent's family came over as well. Then we were all entertained by the always awesome yo-yo stylings of Riley Booker. Riley is super on the yo-yo and I just barely learned this after knowing him almost eight years now. I can't get enough of his tricks (or their names) and it was a great ending to a very fun day.

PIANO MORNING

This morning when we woke up Stella, Daddy asked her if she knew what today was. She replied: "Piano." Because that is what she has been asking for for Christmas from Santa. She was super excited to open all the gifts, and I was surprised that right as she got them out from under the tree, she knew which ones were Mommy's and which ones were hers.

She only got a few presents, but has already learned to rotate playing with them very nicely. She loves her Pottery Barn diaper bag, and has been using it to change her babies' diapers. Then she vacuums with her play Dyson vacuum. Then she takes some pictures with her new digital camera (thanks Peter, Julayne, Nathan, and Chloe!) Then she plunks down a few notes on her new piano. And then she starts watching one of her new movies.

Stella was very nice this year, and she deserves all the joy the day can bring because she brings so much joy to her mommy and daddy every day the whole year through.

GRATEFUL EVE

Last night we went to my parents. I didn't take a lot of pictures. (I know, try not to be too shocked.) We had pizza, let the girls run wild together, and then enjoyed a Christmas devotional orchestrated by my mom. This year the Evans family theme is gratitude, taken from a talk from President Monson. Times might be tough and things can look grim, but even if you think you have nothing good in your life, you have the Savior, the ultimate gift we have been given.

After everyone else had left, my mom and I gave Stella a bath so she could go straight to bed when we got home. While sitting in the bath she started singing: "Tinkerbells, Tinkerbells...all the way." I don't know when she learned the song "Jingle Bells," but she thought it was "Tinkerbells." So cute!

SANTA: TANTRUM FREE

Well, if you remember (and really, how could you forget?) last year Stella freaked out when I made her sit on Santa's lap. So while we were getting in the car on our way to see Santa today Stella kept telling me: "Mom, I not cry see Santa." And she didn't. She was super excited when it was her turn and she walked right up to him and got up on his lap. She told him what she wanted (a piano), and wished him a Merry Christmas. Santa did not ask if she had been naughty or nice, because anyone can see that Stella is very nice most of the time.

The official Santa picture is adorable:

SALLAY CHRISTMAS

Tonight we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Sallay's for a Christmas dinner. We had a huge dinner and then opened a few gifts. Some highlights of the night were:

• Stella getting a very pretty picture of Jesus to hang in her room and a few other treasures.
• Brent pretending to be surprised to get Apocalypse Now
• Stella running around and around the living room
• Stella performing "I Saw Mama Kissing Santa Claus." This is hopefully not her last showing of this number.
• Stella enjoying Grandma's little village, her favorite building being the church.

A few months ago John and Valerie came up with the idea to pool our funds together as kids and buy Mom and Dad a new fridge. When they opened the box there was this picture of Stella inside:

They didn't know what to think at first, but soon they realized that we had gotten them a fridge. They were very excited, but I still think they might be a little shocked that we could all work together so well. ;) I believe they are also still unsure of Kathy's ability to correctly measure the space for the fridge. I think we all hope Kathy knows how to read a tape measure, because at this point it is a done deal.

We were small in numbers, but we had a fun night. At least we wore out Stella.

RED DRESS

Today was Christmas Sunday, which means Stella put on her holiday best and showed those other nursery kids a thing or two about style. (Well, that is actually every week, but that is for another blog post.) Being my daughter, she is so over doing anything after three long hours of church so this was a short and only half successful photo shoot. But she still looked so stinking festive in her puffy dress as you will see.

During sacrament, Stella loved all of the songs during the program, and when ever we were asked to sing with the choir Stella told Dad he was to pretend to play the piano, Mom the drums, and she the guitar. If we stopped pretending to do it she would get testy. I was kind of surprised that she could so easily assign us just the right instruments to make a band. Maybe not a band that should play at sacrament, but that is only a minor quibble.