Christmas in Alabama...Day 4

Christmas Eve finally arrived and while we were excited...we were also a little sad because that meant that our trip was almost over.  We had a busy day planned and the girls enjoyed every single second.

The girls liked playing "find the ornament" on the tree. Mamo or Papo would say can you find the _____ ornament and they would look until they found it. One of the ornaments has a little book that goes with it and Landry was taken with this book. She loved for Mamo to sit and read it to her. She wanted to sit and listen like she does at school which is why they were on the floor. I think it makes for a cute picture and was glad I was able to snap a pic before Landry saw me!

Mamo and Papo have such a pretty tree (that spins) with tons of ornaments. Ashton loves seeing the ornaments with pictures of Daddy, Aunt Marie and Uncle Todd when they were little. She also loves looking at the ornaments they made when they were little.

It was finally time to make the icing to decorate the cookies for Santa.  

While Mamo was looking away, they decided that if Daddy could stick his finger in and test the icing, then they could too. So that is just what they did. They might have even done it more than once....

...so Mamo let them each have a beater to lick. They don't get to do this often (in fact I can't remember if they ever have before) so they were all over it! They licked those bad boys C-L-E-A-N!

Mamo and her two little helpers

And then it was time for their favorite part....the icing!

Landry discovered it was way too tempting to not eat the icing, so she would just every so often (actually every time she got more icing on her knife) lick her knife.  She knew exactly what she was doing....just look at her little grin on her face.  Papo got the biggest kick out of this so of course she had to keep entertaining him. I am pretty sure she got more in her tummy than she did on her cookies and trust me, she got A LOT on her cookies!

and then came the sprinkles. Oh my word...there were sprinkles everywhere! Landry kind of couldn't help her self and went nuts. Ashton on the other hand took her decorating very serious! She was creating masterpieces!

Just look at how much icing is on her....

Last year, Santa sent Ashton a video via email for the first time in her life. She was so excited. She was hoping that Santa would send another one this year. She had been waiting all day  and asked no less than a million times if I had an email yet. So just after dinner when I went to check my email, it was there in my inbox. She was so excited she could  hardly stand it.  We didn't get any pictures of her watching it because I was in charge of scrolling and clicking.

She was in tears....Santa knew she was in Alabama this year, he knew her best friend was Macy, he had a current picture of her in his book, he had a picture of the digital camera she had asked for, he even showed her where his reindeer live and told her how he chooses the reindeer to use. She was beyond ecstatic. It was such a magical moment and she was happy that Mamo and Papo and Uncle Todd could see her email video too.

Landry also got a video message from Santa this year. He knew it was her first time, he knew she wanted purple drums, he also had a picture of her. She sat in my lap and was answering his questions and talking to him...it was too cute!

Ashton was bouncing off the walls with excitement. She literally could hardly contain herself. She was in total awe of  Santa's magic. She is a true believer in Santa and this year was the most excited she has ever been! It is so awesome to experience Christmas and all of its magic through the eyes of our girls!

In between all the activities and excitement we managed to get some family pictures...

The Texas Bryces

The Texas Bryces and the Alabama Bryces

gotta have the silly face one!

Then it was time for the girls to make the final preparations for Santa to come. They made reindeer food...

....read "Twas the Night Before Christmas"

{which was a really old copy-it was from when Papo was a little boy. Ashton thought that was so cool.}

         

...put everything in just the right place...

...and tucked them into bed!

Before we started our nightly game of cards, the boys made sausage cheese balls for breakfast in the morning.  And then we played cards and drank wine before we headed to bed!

We were all looking forward to Christmas morning. Everyone was just giddy over what we would find when we woke up!  We knew we would have two super excited little girls on our hands!