Christmas 2015 - Year of Giant Toys

Let the Christmas recap commence.

Christmas Eve with Tim's family

Piles of presents under the tree and the majority were for three (spoiled) little girls!

Tim's 92 year old grandmother, Mema, made tins fudge for each family. This has been a tradition for years, and as you can see from Felicity's clean plate, we're thrilled she keeps it up.

 After all the presents were opened, the girls played and played and played...

...Daddy and his cousin Caleb also played with the girls' new fort building set. They really got into engineering the largest possible fort.

Considering we fit seven people inside, they succeeded.  The fort has been reconfigured a couple of times at home since Christmas and is the best hangout. We've let them sleep in it at night. Felicity never makes it - she just wants to sleep in her own bed after rolling around with the other two for an hour. Can't really blame her for wanting a soft mattress and the peace and quiet of her own room!

Christmas Day at Home

After Christmas morning Mass, we opened our gifts from Santa! We so enjoyed this time together celebrating Christmas! The girls are so excited and make the entire season magical.

 They (again) got piles of toys, Mommy got a BIG food processor,

and Daddy's gifts were mostly Purdue themed.

Out of all the toys they got from Santa this year, a favorite has been the Play-Doh Crazy Cuts. It's a touch messier than regular play dough, but keeps them busy for a good stretch. We've learned to keep it far away from the upholstered chairs around the kitchen table...

Later in the afternoon, Tim's family joined us for food and a few more gifts.

Christmas with Sarah's family

Sarah's family got together the Sunday after Christmas so that everyone could make it.

While we were waiting for the Canadian members of the family to arrive, we made gingerbread houses. Which, it turns out, is a lot harder than it looks.

The girls had fun with it, and despite Tim's efforts to add extra support to their creations, they just didn't seem to want to stand for very long. It was probably the sheer weight of all the candy decorations that caused the houses to cave in.

It was a nice day to relax, play games, eat too much, and...

 ...open more of the biggest presents.

Grandpa made the girls a new Barbie house. 

 It was big enough to fit a little girls inside!

And Uncle John gave them a power wheels car. They're not pros with it yet, but Daddy works with them in the basement on "driving lessons" in the evenings. Hopefully by the spring we'll be able to let the loose with it outdoors and feel confident they won't run over any of the neighbors kids or dogs.