Scenes from Christmas

Happy {almost} New Year, everyone! This year, as always it seems Christmas came and went in a flash. My girls are at such fun ages - Leila is almost 9, and Coco is 5.5 and they still both believe in Santa, and all of the magic of Christmas (though they of course know what the REAL reason for Christmas is!) This year Tony worked the days before Christmas, and came home on Christmas morning. I'm not going to lie - it's kind of nerve wracking being Santa all by yourself. Every little noise I heard while laying out presents, and stuffing stockings made my heart drop, thinking I was getting caught. Luckily I didn't! :)

I made the girls come into my room as soon as they woke up, and we watched "A Christmas Story" on TV while waiting for Tony to get home. Lucky girls didn't have to wait too long, though. The second he walked through the door, he came into the room and said "Girls, Santa was here, get up get up!" and just like that they were excitedly running down the hall.

The big things they wanted (and received) from Santa were a sewing machine (Leila) and a Barbie pop-up camper (Coco) I can't sew to save my life, so I am currently looking into lessons for Leila. She is fashion-obsessed, and wants to be a designer when she grows up, which is why she wants to learn to sew. Melt my mama heart!

All I really wanted was for Tony to for sure be home (and YAY - he was, you never know with his job!) but he also got me the other thing I really wanted - a new bike! (He also got me some awesome new Lululemon pants, which I'm calling my magic pants because I look pretty good in them!)

Ramon got everything he wanted too ;)  {so did Sugar, she's just not a fan of the camera, unlike my boy}

We had my parents over in the morning for presents and brunch and then the girls were able to play with their new goodies for a few hours while I attempted to get my house back in order. In the afternoon we went to my brother's house.

My girls and my brother's girls. Love them all so much!

And this is me and my brother - believe it or not I was a whole foot taller than him up until his junior year of high school....

And my four.

I am not one of those people who dreads the holiday season, quite the opposite actually. Every Christmas night, for as long as I can remember this Sesame Street Christmas song has popped into my head. Always a little bit sad to say goodbye to the magic and beauty of the holiday season.
 

Not like things are slowing down one bit, though! Leila's birthday is at the end of January, so we are in planning mode for that. In February I have my cousin's bachelorette weekend, and the very beginning of March holds Coco's birthday, and my cousin's wedding, which I am a bridesmaid in. I'm planning on sleeping a lot after that ;)

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! And I would love to know - what was your favorite gift you gave or received this year!