Christmas morning!

It was wonderful. Nina woke up, peeked over the balcony, and announced that Santa had arrived. Maggie is generally more sluggish in the morning, and stayed in bed for a little longer. Then she said, "I forgot today is Christmas!" and promptly got up.

Santa had filled their stockings and left presents for them on the table underneath that, so those got opened first:

Santa's gifts were all wrapped in the same snowman paper. Good wrapping job, Santa!

A coat for Kit, Nina's American Girl doll! This should have been a happy moment, but it wasn't. I'll explain more below.

It's a rubber band bracelet weaving loom! How exciting!!

And meet Marisol, the newest member of our family. Maggie was so, so excited.

Nina's big gift was a kayak. She loves kayaking, so this was very exciting! Too bad it's so cold that she won't be able to use it for 5 months. Sorry Nina!!

Ok, so about the American girl doll clothes. We got Marisol for Maggie, and Nina has had Kit for years and years, but both girls got a bunch of clothes for their dolls this Christmas, which Nina was especially excited for.

Well, we went looking for Kit so the girls could dress their dolls up, and... nothing. She was nowhere to be found! We searched every nook and cranny in every room, searched mom and dad's house, and even popped over to the church to see if we'd left her there. No luck. (There was a lovely community dinner though, so of course we stayed and ate a bit. Also, the BHPD officer on duty for Christmas day was there, and we reported the missing doll to him. He said she hadn't turned up at the precinct yet, but he'd be sure to keep an eye out. Reassuring.)

There were some tears, and at one point a small child might have lamented that Christmas was ruined, but I don't think it'll ultimately go down as the worst Christmas ever. Only time will tell, of course.

Maggie ended up finding Kit the next day, hidden in the puppet theater. That puppet theater! I didn't check inside its cabinets! You'd think a puppet theater could only be used for one thing, but not our puppet theater. It's probably the most versatile toy they own, and it frequently fills in for a ship, a car, a fruit stand, you name it. And the other day it was a wagon, and Kit had gotten a ride. Of course.

The entire day wasn't ruined, though. We ate a lovely dinner at mom's house, and then the Gilchrists came by and we had coffee and dessert together. Seeing the Gilchrists was convenient, because Maggie only eats Nan cookies now. No others are good enough.


Oh, also it was cold. Cold. Yesterday and today were a bit warmer, and tomorrow's supposed to be above freezing, but then it looks like another week-long frigid spell. Joy. Hopefully we don't all freeze!!