Every year, Santa comes to our house and checks in with the girls on Christmas Eve to get a naughty-or-nice report and brings them a little gift to open. Just prior to his visit, Maddy and Ellie were twirling all around the room just as joyfully as could be and then... Santa enters through the front door--It was classic!! Maddy went from laughing and singing happily to shrieking hysterically in a matter of mere seconds--hence the snotty nose and crazy hair! (We have it all on video.) But she eventually warmed up when Santa pulled out his big red sack and started pulling out presents :)
The top picture of Ellie was how her face looked the entirety of present opening. She was so excited that Santa brought her everything on her list. The trampoline was a fun family gift and we were all so excited that it didn't fall off Santa's sleigh (i.e. that it got there in time!!) For dinner, we decided to throw out the traditional ham and turkey (who really likes that stuff anyways right?!) and opted for the most delicious prime rib EVER!! YUMMY!!
Some other holiday highlights included getting invited to see "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" at the Old Globe Theater with Mark's company again--complete with a meet and greet with the Grinch himself and a delicious "Who-ville Feast", getting to see Ellie's preschool holiday program, going to Sea World twice (by the way, the Shamu holiday night show was amazing!! they had a sax player, guitar player and a choir perform all during the whale show which was set to classical Christmas music (Silent Night, etc...) and then at the end they had the entire audience stand up and join in singing "Joy to the World!"). We participated in pulling (and receiving) holiday neighborhood pranks (who mounted our polar bears--AGAIN?!), decorating our traditional gingerbread house, talking to family on the phone, going to Coronado Island for lunch and walking along the beach. We enjoyed visiting Point Loma and watching the sunset over the ocean, driving around to see ALL the Christmas lights in San Diego, hanging out with good friends, attending numerous parties, going to the movies, golfing 3 (or was it 4?!) times for Mark, eating out, shopping for Alicia, going on a 3 hour dinner/dance cruise aboard the Hornblower, playing games (Have you played Blokus yet?!), eating more yummy food, and just hanging out.
