Happy Birthday Jesus!
Christmas day has finally arrived and the girls couldn't be more excited. Rylee REALLY got into the spirit and excitement of Christmas this year. She loved the nativity calendar that Grammy and GrandDad Gattis sent. It was the highlight of each day in December to put one more symbol up on the calendar count down to Jesus's birth.
The girl's excitement about the holidays filled my heart with joy!
Apparently Rylee and Avery were really good this year, Santa was so generous. What a fun day of celebration!
Avery was happy to open presents, but honestly I think the whole thing was a bit overwhelming for her. Avery is our more focused child and was completely content exploring and playing with the toys that Santa brought her. Every time we said "Avery it's your turn to open one" or "Another one for Avery" she would say "I can't!!"
So many family and friends were so kind to ship us gifts all the way to Japan. We certainly felt all the love from the states this year!
Thank you so much to all who sent Christmas cards and gifts, you truly made us feel special this year!
Thank you Uncle Tim and Aunt Kathy for the fun and cute hair pretties. The girls love them, Rylee put one on instantly!!
Thank you Aunt Lulu, Uncle Matt, Madison and Cohen for the awesome puzzles, dish sets, video and game card set!! We have already enjoyed it all! The dish set goes perfect with the little kitchen Santa brought!
Thank you Uncle Boo and Aunt Carmen for the awesome jewelry boxes, stickers and umbrellas!! The girls can't wait for a rainy day!
Avery was very excited about her new umbrella! She also received new underwear that was equally as exciting! I think the girls changed their attire 3 times on Christmas morning. Every time they opened something they could wear they had to put it on immediately. It was too Funny!
One of the girl's favorite movies this year was "Madagascar." Avery is just crazy about Melman the Giraffe and Rylee loves Gloria the hippo. Much thanks to Grammy and GrandDad Gattis the girls received their own Melman and Gloria! They were in heaven!
Thank you Aunt Kimmy and Uncle Kevin for the awesome Glow Board and Hello Kitty piano. The girls love to color and love music, so no doubt they will enjoy hours of entertainment thanks to you!!
Oh my goodness Mimi and Pops.....this dress has hardly come off of Rylee in the last three days. She
LOVES it!!
And Avery looks just adorable in her bunny robe and night gown, thank you so much!
Needless to say the girls new toys have brought a ton of fun into the house! Chris and I have also reverted to childhood as we have spent much time in the toy room building marble roller coasters, baking cookies and making soup in the little kitchen, dressing baby dolls, putting puzzles together, going on safari with Melman and Gloria and making music together.
Oh what fun to be a kid!!
I apologize if this blog update seems a bit showy. My intent was not to brag about all the great things we received this Christmas, but more as a "THANK YOU" to all who thought of us this holiday season. And since we could not physically be with our family this Christmas, we wanted to shared in detail our Christmas excitement.
This has been an especially difficult time of year for us this year to be apart from family and friends! In addition to naturally missing everyone during the holidays, we also missed sharing in the arrival of our first nephew Cohen Matthew Smucker. He was born on December 23 and is a true blessing to our family!! We can't wait to meet him in person when we return in May!!
Merry Christmas to all and best wishes in 2010!
We did not bring any Christmas decorations, other than our stockings, to Japan. Last year we purchased a small used, pre-lit, pre-decorated, ugly Christmas tree from our favorite Japanese used goods store, Hard Off. Thanks to receiving a few ornaments from family and friends last Christmas, our poor little tree is looking a little better this year. Regardless of the shape our tree is in, the girls had so much fun putting the ornaments on it.
This is Rylee with Wendy, our Japanese teacher's dog.
Rylee and Mioko-sensei
After having made 3 dozen sugar cookies for Rylee's classmates for Halloween, I swore I would do something more simple for Christmas. However, I just couldn't think of anything more "American Christmas" like then sugar cookies. Plus my ingredients are limited here on what I am capable of making. It was fun to make them again and Rylee was excited to share them with her school.
The girls had a lot of fun painting the ornaments that Aunt Kimmy and Uncle Kevin sent.
We had fun making Christmas cookies for Santa on Christmas eve.
It is our family tradition to read "The Night Before Christmas" on Christmas eve.
