One of those days

Lately, if we are saying "It's been one of those days" it means one of those days that has tested our patience, our intuition, and our sanity - two three year olds are wreaking havoc on all three of those things.  But today, when we say it was "one of those days' we mean one of those days we dreamed about as we waited for Clara and Elena to come into our lives.  It was simply a wonderful day.

We started out by doing our family Christmas (before we travel, so that we make good use of our tree and we don't haul our presents around the country).  Christina color-coded the presents, so the girls ran upstairs and began assembling a pile of "their color" presents.  Who is that little girl behind the tree, grabbing the big present?

Christina's mom always hand made at least one Christmas gift for all of her children, and Christina strives to do the same (four years down!).  Here the girls open the Princess and the Pea play sets Christina made them this year.

(Later when we asked them what their favorite present was, they said they liked the doll with the rock in her bed - hooray!).

Both girls were also into the giving part of the event - even before they were done opening their gifts they were bringing us our gifts and insisting we open them.

 

 

 Steve got Christina this beautiful necklace that is an image of two adults and two children in a hug - the girls absolutely adore picking out who is who in the necklace.  Beauty and entertainment in one!

We let them open presents that had been sent early, too - thank you Grandpa and Grandma Mary, for the new toys the girls were THRILLED with.  (Auntie Laura made us open hers earlier than today, and so let us add that the girls loved those gifts, too - we just didn't get a picture of the opening!).

After some chocolate chip waffles, we had fun with friends who came over for coffee and play.  Clara and Elena taught their friend, Scott, how to babysit them - as an eight year old, he is just getting the skill!  He taught them how to play football, and brought a new level of excitement to hide and seek!

Then, it was off to an ice-skating party!  Clara and Elena have never ice skated, but they have watched their favorite tv character, Madeline, do it countless times, and they were thrilled to try.

They were actually really good at it, for being only three!   They got the hang of walking on the skates inside really quickly, and then when they went to the ice they did great, although we never let them go off on their own.  Clara needed two-hand holding most of the time, but she was excellent at gliding.

And Elena was pretty good with only one hand held most of the time, and she started getting the hang of sliding her feet in the right alternating pattern so that she was even doing some of the skating herself!  We'll definitely be going back.

After decompressing at home for a bit we had a tamale-making party, with just the four of us.  They unfortunately turned out a bit too spicy for anyone but Steve, but it was great fun making them and we now have tons (local friends, let us know if you want any!).

We listened to Christmas music, watched some Christmas movies, and the girls had long bubble baths.  They went downstairs and insisted on reading to one another in their beds, and they didn't fight once!

Not only that, but this peaceful one is the one the day ended on for them - they both drifted right off to sleep as soon as we turned out the lights.  AMAZING!

 

We are so grateful for our good fortune - and so glad to have had "one of those days!"