Christmas Bagpipes and Puppy Races

Christmas is such a magical time of year. I love the music, the decorations, and especially the treats! Mint chocolate is one of my favorite combinations of all time and Christmas doesn't disappoint. I bought a bag of mint chocolate kisses for the girls and I to enjoy. Scarlett turned to me and said "I just can't stop eating the Christmas kisses, they're soooooooo good!" I feel your pain little girl.

We frosted cookies and built a gingerbread house.  The little gingerbread house kit thing stood up for all of 5 min before it fell apart.  I think the girls were happier when it was in delicious pieces.

We sang lots of Christmas songs, "Circle Bug" was a favorite (Jingle Bells - but it always sounded like circle bug).  We drove around to see the lights.  While passing one particularly awesome house Scarlett said "Wow, that house is so beautiful.  It has lights all over its skin."  Apparently the outside of your home is covered in skin... makes sense to me.  We did the same $5 outdoor lighting trick as last year.  But many of our neighbors had these cool laser light projectors on their homes.  It was really quite beautiful.

Also, we bought our first tree (that's over 3 feet tall).  My friend, Shannon, gave me a BUNCH of her Christmas decorations since she's trying to downsize.  So this year our home felt magical.  The girls enjoyed playing with our nativity and rearranging all the window clings.  We let them play with the ornaments on the small tree too.  I even caught them giving the blue star lights (by the stockings) a makeover with their fake-up:

Christmas Sunday.  Apparently Jaide was not having any of that silliness.

Ford shuts down for two weeks around Christmas (I guess there are a few benefits to the UAW).  Since Jake used all his vacation prior to the break he went to work on Dec 23.  They have a tradition that started years ago that when you come into work the last day before the break you can go home as soon as you hear the man in the kilt playing his bagpipes.  haha!  Random!  So a little before noon that day, Jake heard the music start.  Luckily many coworkers were filming, so Jake felt safe pulling out his phone to record some of the jig:

For Christmas Eve Jake told the story of the nativity while the girls had to go find all the pieces to the story and set it up by the fireplace (for Santa to see).

Then we read a few more stories.  (No German accent this time*... maybe next year! haha!)

*Inside story: one of our first Christmases after we were married we were reading stories on Christmas Eve with my family.  Jake picked up some random book, looked at the pictures, and made up his own story (that even rhymed!) - and he did the whole thing in a German accent!  haha! 

Christmas Jammies!  The girls wanted to listen to Let It Go in their new Elsa dresses, the best part was they copied all my dance moves!  It looked rehearsed, but it was an impromptu performance:

We went outside to listen for Santa's jingle bells.  Aunt Jami was feeling too "sick" to come outside and hid in our bathroom with the window slightly cracked so we could hear her from the driveway below.  Scarlett almost figured out what was going on, I really think the only thing that prevented her from putting it together was the fact that she wholeheartedly believes in Santa and isn't skeptical... yet.

Christmas morning!

Santa brought the girls baby dolls and little bottles.  He wanted to bring them white puppies but Scarlett accidentally saw them the day before so there was some last minute rearranging!  haha!

Jake got a little Jacob's Ladder toy in his stocking.  Scarlett kept calling it the "Me Ladder" haha!!!!!

I finally got a sewing machine.  I'm so grown up!  ;-)  You'll also notice I'm sporting a gorgeous new wedding ring.  I told Jake I wanted a ring to wear while prego and he bought me this beauty!  Spot on my style too!  Jake holding a BYU football onesie and matching bow - I can't believe we're going to have another baby soon!

The twirls got a fisher price car that they LOVE LOVE LOVE.  They also fight over it a LOT.  You might think it's unfair that they have to share *ahem, Jami* but 1: sharing is an important skill to learn, especially as a twin 2: I'm not having two of these huge cars in our toy room and 3: they have tons of other things they fight over - even when we have two of them.  Often I'll find them taking turns and pushing each other.

Scarlett got a Frozen scooter.  She told us " I know everything about scooters, I'm going to write a book."  I can't wait to read it!

Jake entertained the girls with his new quadcopter...

...and paper airplane launcher....

...while I entertained baby #4.

This winter has been so bizarre with the lack of snow.  Not complaining though!  On Christmas day we were able to take our outdoor toys and do some serious laps on the sidewalk.

Rainbow Dashes (thanks Christy)!

Why is it that the cardboard boxes are always the most fun?!

More vegging...

We got to Facetime our families in Utah and Russia!  The twirls were mostly excited to show everyone that the cookie plate was empty from Santa!  haha!  We watched the AMAZING video that Nate made for the Glauser Family. He had us all submit videos for Mom & Dad G in Russia.  He used one of our videos at the very end, but he sped it up to showcase our little circus.  I sped it up for you twoo so you can really enjoy the madness that is our lives:

The white puppies.  They were the huge hit.  They are Fur Real Friends that have little leashes so you can take them on walks.  I made little tulle bows so they could tell them apart.  The twirls fed them with their baby bottles (even before they were out of the boxes).

They fed them toy food and even brought them in to watch a show.

Then we moved the table out of the kitchen so we could have puppy races...

What a wonderful Christmas!  I love seeing the magic of the holiday and the excitement it brings our girls.  They are at a fun (and exhausting) age!  I'm so thankful for the birth of our Savior and the opportunity we have to focus on Him during the month of December.