One Last Christmas Celebration!

We wrapped up the Christmas celebrations by heading to Nana's on Saturday the 28th for our traditional family gift exchange. This party had been postponed from the Saturday before because of the ice storm. The ice coating, dusted by a little bit of snow, made Nana's house look beautiful--Mama remarked that this was the most beautiful she has ever seen Maine look.

Nana's house was warm and cozy--it sure was nice to have the power back on!

Besides Nana and Uncle David, Uncle Seth, Aunt Sara and the cousins all joined us….

…along with Grandpa N.!

We knew the party would go for several hours, and we didn't want to leave Molly in her crate for all that time, so we brought her along. She behaved very nicely, even allowing the kids to put some reindeer antlers on her. What a good puppy!

Mama and the kids took her outside to run around a little bit in the snow, which was nice.

Finally it was time to open gifts. Traditionally Lili passes out the presents, but Em and Kate volunteered to be her Elf assistants for the task.

Everyone got at least one present, and the kids got several. Sebastian was very happy about his Kindle….

…while Uncle David liked his Christmas sweater….

…and Nana took a risk by giving clothes to teenagers. 

Luckily, Alana loved her new shirt and jeans.

Aunt Sara got a nice warm fleece...

…as did Mom, Mama, and Uncle Seth (thanks Grandpa N.!).

The little kids got plenty of gifts as well.

Kate received a game called "Headbanz", which looked to be really fun….

…they both got really cool snowman-building kits….

…and Emily opened the Smithsonian dinosaur fossil kit that she had really wanted!

Nana also got Lili some new clothes, and once again she scored a teenage hit--Lili liked them.

We were all surprised when Uncle Seth opened up the same 3D air hockey set that Emily had received from Kate this year--sweet!

And we were glad that both Grandpa and Nana seemed to like the framed wedding photos that we gave them.

Nana seemed happy to get a new bottle of "Nana juice" to add to her collection.

Meanwhile, the kids had even more presents to open--these are lucky kids. They got a Friendship Bracelet kit to share, along with puzzles and craft kits--awesome!

And they also received the ever-popular gift of cold hard cash.

After all the gifts were opened, it was time to relax and just hang out together.

Nana had worked all day to put together a delicious Christmas dinner, and we all enjoyed the baked ham, pork loin, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and green beans…yum!

After dinner we polished off the rest of the Christmas cookies and some cranberry pie.

We certainly enjoyed the holiday season this year, and we hope that all of our blog readers had a wonderful time as well. Merry Christmas everyone!

Arrival of the iPods

Because of the ice storm, UPS had not been able to deliver the girls' iPods in time for Christmas. The UPS driver finally showed up on the day after Christmas, and the kids were quite thrilled with the tiny Shuffles. Emily's is teal and Kate's is purple (the colors match their headphones as well), and their names are engraved on them too. Mama loaded up their own playlists on each device and they were off and listening (and singing loudly).

On a side note, we are pretty much against giving electronic devices to young kids. We think kids get too much "screen time" already, so anything else that distracts them from creative play with each other is a bad thing. However, we made an exception for these "Shuffles" because they have no screen. If one of our kids wants to chill out with music only she can hear, great. The funny thing is that so far they are still trying to play together with them--they keep trying to get the same song playing at once on both iPods!

Celebrating with Grandma and Pop Pop

We still had one more celebration on Christmas Day - Grandma and Pop Pop came over to join us for dinner.

They brought presents for the girls, but in a remarkable show of restraint (due to a lecture given shortly before their arrival), the kids let their grandparents sit down and chat a little before rushing to open the gifts.

The girls told Pop Pop and Grandma all about their day and how exciting it had been....

...and Grandma and Pop Pop listened patiently to the stories....

...then finally it was time to open the new presents!

Emily unwrapped yet another Cabela's playset (the camping set with real fabric tent)...

...which was the one that she had wanted in the first place. She was quite happy with it!

Meanwhile, Kate received a Hello Kitty microphone with stand, which replaces the one she had previously which had been broken. Kate had specifically asked for this (it was at the top of her list!), so she was quite pleased to receive it.

Grandma and Pop Pop had a gift to open too!

We gave them a photo frame with pictures from our wedding. Narcissistic? Yeah, probably, but they seemed to like it.

The kids' gifts were a huge hit. Emily loved all the "stuff" that came with her camping play set. Besides the tent, there was an inflatable boat, a four-wheeler with trailer, a deer, lantern, camping table and chairs, and even a campfire!

Kate couldn't wait to get her microphone stand plugged in and working. After we found batteries and got that thing lit up, she was ready to sing.

We were all treated to a fantastic (and somewhat excruciating) concert by the Rock Sisters.

After gift time, it was time to enjoy Mama's salad and home cooked pizza...yum!

Thanks for coming over to celebrate Christmas with us, Grandma and Pop Pop!

Christmas Morning!

On Christmas morning the moms woke up very early (as we do every day, because we have a puppy). We were thrilled to find that Santa had come during the night and left a bunch of presents!

He also had filled up the stockings, so apparently he had determined that we had all been "nice" this year. That's a relief!

The girls slept in (not surprising since they had partied late last night). Per Nichols family tradition, after they finally woke up, they had to wait at the top of the stairs until we were ready for them to come down (i.e. we had our phones poised to snap photos).

When they were finally released, they were super-excited to see what Santa (and others) had left under the tree.

Because of the pets, we hadn't put our family gifts under the tree until Christmas Eve (after the kids were in bed), so the big pile of presents looked pretty impressive under there.

We took turns opening gifts, so it wouldn't be just a giant free-for-all. There were many more gifts for the kids than for the moms (as it should be).

The first things they opened were the Cabela's action figure sets that we got them--Emily's was the duck hunting set, and Kate's was the horse trailer one.

They loved them!

Next, Molly received her gift to open. She's such a good dog that she didn't want to tear into the wrapping paper, even after we encouraged her to do it.

So we opened it for her. It was a stuffed squeaky dinosaur!

Next the girls opened the other gifts we got them, which were "kid-friendly" volume control headphones. They were also supposed to get iPod shuffles (with their names engraved on them!), but UPS couldn't deliver them in the ice storm.

We put the headphones aside with the promise that "you'll know what they are for later". Luckily there was plenty of other stuff to open, so they moved right on….

…to Santa's gifts. He had brought them each a science set (which they both had asked for)….

…and, in a total surprise move, he brought them a whole bunch of Equestria Girls dolls.

The Equestria Girls are the "tween" spinoff characters from the My Little Pony show. Em and Kate love watching their movie on Netflix, and the play Equestria Girls all the time (and sing the songs). Even though they hadn't asked for these toys, they seemed pretty happy with Santa's choice.

Next they moved on to the gifts they had gotten each other. Kate had picked out a 3D air hockey game for Emily at Mardens (sweet!)….

…while Emily knew that Kate would love Daisy, the Fur Real kitty friend. She was right.

Did the moms get anything, you ask? Why yes, the moms got a few things too, like hand warmers….

…and new gloves. Thank you Santa!

The kids were so pleased with their new presents that they almost couldn't decide what to play with first. They settled on the action figure sets. Emily's duck boat became a quick favorite….

…and when they discovered that Kate's F250 had a working winch, they set up a whole convey of trucks and trailers.

At some point in the morning, the girls suddenly remembered about the stockings. Suddenly there was a mad rush to find out what was in them!

Mom and Mama's stockings were filled too, but (of course) not nearly as much as the girls'.

The kids found all kinds of fun stuff in their stockings. Besides the obligatory candy, there were holiday sock monkeys,…..

…holiday socks….

…cute hat and glove sets….

…and fake mustaches! It always seems to be a struggle for Santa to find non-candy items for the stockings, but this year he did pretty well.

After emptying the stockings, the girls decided to try out the 3D air hockey game.

It was pretty fun, and the 3D effect made it even better!

Nana and Uncle David stopped by mid-morning to visit us, but also to fill up water jugs and take showers (their power was still out).

They were happy to see that Santa had decided we'd all been good girls this year.

And they thought the 3D air hockey game was pretty fun too!

After lunch, the girls remembered Melinda's special cupcake and candy treats from the night before, and it was time to chow down.

They were certainly tasty, but it wasn't like we needed any more candy at that point.

The kids played great with their new toys, but by mid-afternoon we knew we had to get outside and get some fresh air and exercise to avoid a post-Christmas meltdown. We took Molly for a walk up in the woods, which gave all of us a nice energy boost.

Merry Christmas to all of our blog readers!