Christmas

Lily and Santa's loot.

Lots to cover here - so forgive me if I leave anything out.

Christmas Eve we went to Mass with the girls for the first time in a couple years. We tried two years ago, but they just wanted to run all over the place and ended up out on the playground with my mom the whole time. So, when I saw that St. Michael's was having a children's pageant mass at Green Hope HS, I thought we'd give it a shot.

The pageant was a big hit. The girls loved seeing "Mother Mary" and "Father Joseph" again along with all the angels, shepherds, etc. It wasn't as crowded as the normal church, and we were able to get good seats on the aisle.

Lily pretending to be Santa and asking Madeleine what she wants.

Lily insisted on pretending to be the Virgin Mary pretty much the entire mass. She brought her baby "Jesus" with her and wore a receiving blanked on her head for much of the time. She didn't want to sit in her seat, but kneel in the aisle in various poses. I'm not sure if the other people there could tell what she was trying to do or not.


We ducked out of there early after Communion, and both girls went with me and were blessed by the priest. Of course Madeleine asks very loudly as we were trying to sneak out the side, "Why did he put the body of Christ in your mouth?

Afterwards we went to Grandma and Grandpa Bench's to open presents and have snacks. The girls wore princess dresses the whole time and were very excited to open their presents. The biggest hits were lipstick and the jeep from Uncle Mark and Aunt Laura (which we haven't been brave enough to try since).

Christmas morning they woke up at a normal time, and didn't seem especially excited to head upstairs. Madeleine got her "office" - an old laptop I'd set up in the corner of the living room. They tired quickly of opening gifts, so it was a struggle to get them through the pile (ours plus Aunt Robin's).

Then we headed off to Greensboro to Grandma Goodman's and Poppy's house. Lily didn't sleep at all in the car, and we opened gifts there as well. As you can see the girls got helmets to go with their bikes/skates/jeep.

We came home on Friday and have had a pretty low key weekend. Saturday is rainy, so we just hung out inside. We've watched the Polar Express twice. We did painting and more paper chains. Today we went for a walk in the woods with the wagon.