pictures, as promised

I finally uploaded them to the computer and can post them now.

The present opening began on Christmas eve with the traditional Christmas PJs. We always got to open one present on Christmas eve growing up, and it was always PJs. I'm continuing the tradition, and here she is.

A tradition Daddy wanted to start was to read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and the real Christmas story before she goes to bed on Christmas eve, so he did that as well.

He was pointing up to the star on the Christmas tree and showing her the star above the stable in Bethlehem in the story.

After she went to bed, Santa's elves got to work putting things together and getting them all set up. He made me get in here to pose for this!

Here is is all put together.

And here's the big gift this year: a table and chairs that Daddy made for her by hand. He worked soooooooooooooooo hard on these. He started in September!

The day before Christmas eve he had a catastrophe while trying to stain them--the type of stain he decided to use didn't work right and it ruined the table. I was crying because I felt so bad for how hard he had worked, and now it was ruined. But he was able to strip it off using bleach and use a different kind of stain he had used before, and it ended up looking just gorgeous.

Here's one of her favorites...

And then it was Christmas morning. A lot of it we got on video, so we don't have as many pictures as we normally would, but here are a few.

Enjoying her new playhouse

Sitting at her new table (with her ice cream....another favorite)

Enjoying the playhouse and her play food (and grocery cart) all at once!

At Grandma's house (we did video at Granny's house, so

I'm afraid we don't have pictures of that)

The day after Christmas I went up in the attic at my parents' and found my old dolls and high chair. I loved watching her play with dolls I once played with. This is "Baby Heen." Her real name was "Baby Ann," but I couldn't say that, so she became "Baby Heen."And this is our little family....before Christmas we had our picture taken, but I couldn't put it on here because it was a Christmas present for our parents! Her hand looks so funny because she was throwing a ball to the guy who was there helping the photographer to make her smile! I had to scan it in, so there are some lines and things in the picture that aren't actually there, but you can get the idea.