Gallinger Christmas!

On December 28th we had our final Christmas when my parents arrived after making the drive from Kansas!  The girls were very excited to see Grandma Robbie and Papa Russ… and even more excited about the presents they got for them! 

Ellie got a Princess Aurora dress

And Maree got an Elsa dress…. of course she's singing "Let it Go"

Then came these wonderful strollers!  Now they had something to push their babies around in… and Engineer Uncle Matt was around to help put them together! 

Chasing each other

Hours of fun

While Grandpa and Grandpa were here.. we got to go see Uncle Matt's new apartment 

The girls love this from their Omaha cousins

Bedtime stories with Papa

Unfortunately they visited on our 1 week of winter that we have for the year… A few of the days didn't even make it to the 50s… of course after they left, the next week was in the 70s.  BUT, we are so glad they came even if they didn't get to have nice weather!

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was a little unusual because this is the first year that Santa officially came! It was also different to not have a bunch of family waking up with us on Christmas morning!  Marc and I were up before the girls and actually had to wake them up so they could come discover their presents!

Santa must have transformed our  tv unit into a fireplace b/c this was the best spot he could find for gifts

Ellie was pretty excited to get her own baby!  

Santa always got me under ware too… weird

These pottery barn chairs have officially replaced the nap nannies… but are technically gifts from  Nana and Papa

Maree  seemed to like Ellie's chair best at first… but eventually she realized her name was on the other one

Daddy got n some good princess playing Christmas morning too

So far this easel has been a great addition to the house as well… both girls love the chalk board and the magnetic letters.  Markers aren't allowed yet because apparently hands and clothing are more exciting to draw on than paper.  

Poortinga Family Christmas Eve

The Poortinga family Christmas took place in Arizona this year.  After 30 years of having Christmas in either Missouri or Iowa… this was quite the change.  At first I was pretty sad about not getting to go back home, not getting to see snow, not getting to see evergreen trees decorated etc.  BUT, I have never… and I mean never… had a Christmas where I didn't travel……. and it was pretty nice to be home. 

Marc's sister's family came and of course his parents, and my brother Matt got to join us all for Christmas Eve and Day!  Gayle and Michelle made amazing food both days, and while both meals took place at our house, it was so nice to not be in charge of everything.

Christmas Eve was also fun - it was great getting to go to our church's Christmas Eve service.  We then came home and the girls opened presents from Nana and Papa.  Thank goodness Matt was there, because the amount of trash we were able to send with him to deposit in his apartment dumpster was ridiculous!! 

The cousins were SO happy to see each other… poor Ellie was a little left out though

trying to get everyone to look 

Ellie had enough of pictures and decided to give me a memorable shot! 

Maree and Madline! 

Nana got Ellie a GIANT stuffed animal 

And Maree got a tool bench that she loves! 

December Festivities

Obviously December flew by, because here it is January!  This season was busier than any other that I can remember.  With Marc's work, we had a few different Christmas parties.. parties with church, neighbors, etc.  I think we had about 3 a week!  In between all of that, we did manage to do some fun things with the girls.

After getting the tree up, I wanted pictures of the girls in their new Christmas jammies thanks to my good friend Sara.

Miss Ellie wasn't wanting to smile

Wait… MY baby holding a baby?! Little Eila Jean came for a Christmas cookie making party and of course they had matching shirts.

This tree/upside down ice cream cone decorating looked a lot cuter on Pinterest … it will probably be a few years before we get any masterful creations!

This was just a mess.. but pretty funny

decorating actual cookies

My Aunt Nancy's sugar cookie recipe is the BEST. It just is a bit time consuming.. I can't wait until the girls will be actual real help!

One Sunday night we dressed the girls up in their Santa outfits  and took them to the Fairmont Princess hotel to look at the lights and see Santa

She thought Santa was great and told him she wanted a baby doll … Santa thought she said she wanted a beemer baby.  Which he thought she was asking for a really cool car lol

Ellie, on the other hand, wasn't so impressed.  I'm SO happy that the one picture they took captured this… I'm even happier that they let me take a few on my own camera so I was able to get one good one of Maree! 

They had a cool carousel that they loved, and b/c the train ride had an hour wait… we did this a few times!!
 

Thanks to our friend Devon who came along… it was SOOO freeing/nice to not feel the pressure of having to have my camera out at every turn… I was able to just enjoy and she captured what she could :)

Also in December, we had Maree's music concert… "Angels We Have Heard On High" and "Joy to the World" were the ones she learned.  She was so cute… the only one to bow when their was applause at the end of each song! 

My Maree