Christmas morning

Christmas morning was wonderful, just the 4 of us. Madeleine woke up first and did not make her normal way down to the hallway to our room. Instead, she went first to the pool table where the tree was. Then, she came up to my side of the bed and informed me that Santa had not come. I asked if she had looked on the fireplace and she said that she had not. I urged her to go look on the fireplace but she was now not feeling as confident.

2 years ago when Madeleine was 2 1/2 year old, she would not come out of her room on Christmas morning because she was sure that Santa was still in the house. Instead she just screamed inside her room for a while. Fun memories!

Last year Madeleine slept until 9 am and when she finally rolled out of bed she joined Lee and I in the TV room. When we asked her if she wanted to see if Santa had come, she started to run around the room and would not go to the fireplace by herself. When we did go to the fireplace, she would not stop running around the room.

This year, it seemed like progress had been made, and when we all went to the fireplace to check things out, Madeleine was elated to see her American Girl Doll. There was a sense of expectation that the doll would be there, evidenced by Madeleine's excitement on Christmas Eve that tomorrow she would receive her American Girl Doll.

Madeleine wanted a Just Like Me doll, and I was informed (by Madeleine) that her doll needed to have blonde hair and brown eyes to match her. I left my camera at Lee's parents' house so this picture was taken at Christmas lunch with Lee's family. Madeleine has named her doll Kaylie.


The funniest moment came when Madeleine was opening her stocking. She noticed that Santa uses the same wrapping paper that we do!

Everett was happy just to play with his footballs. He now has two!