Merry Christmas Everyone

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We had such a WONDERFUL Christmas. On Wednesday afternoon Tom and I took the girls over to Birkdale (it's a shopping center around the corner from our house). They have these mechanical bears that sing and play music for the Holidays. They normally play a couple songs, then take about 15 min breaks and then start again; at least that is how it worked last year. I guess because it was Christmas Eve they were going non-stop. The girls LOVED it. I was expecting Ella to like it and she did, although she wanted to explore all the other decorations that were up too. Audrey on the other hand was mesmerized. She has never been so friendly. Tom and I couldn't stop laughing at her. She was dancing in circles and would fall from getting so dizzy then get back up and start again. Everyone there was watching her as much as the bears. She was hugging and giggling with anyone that would pay attention to her. Then we went home to make Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner. We put the girls to bed then I had to start wrapping. I hadn't wrapped a single present to that point. Tom got to work putting together gifts. Tom's parents got the girls rocking chairs and when we opened them up only one had the screws that you need. That taught us a very valuable lesson for future Christmas's. We will open the boxes and check for parts BEFORE 9pm Christmas Eve. Thank goodness they were from the Grandparents. Between wrapping, assembly and making pies (Tom), we didn't make it to bed until 2am. When the girls got up at 7:30, we made them come watch Cartoons in our bed until 8:30. The girls wanted to just play with the toys instead of continuing to unwrap. We finally got through with opening all the gifts about 10:30. We went to the Higbee's for dinner with some other families in our ward. Madison Pruitt and Ava Higbee were there to play with Ella and Carter Bole and Audrey followed each other around all night. We really had a great night hanging out with everyone. We miss being so far away from family during the Holidays, but if you have to be away, at least we have wonderful friends to spend time with. I hope your Christmas was as great as ours.