We did our Christmas routine on December 26th this year. First off, a brunch fit for a holiday:
And then a “before” picture:
And then the fun begins:
Leilani was actually very helpful and could read most gift tags well enough to find presents for everyone. In the end, I think all the adults sat down all morning, and she ran around giving people gifts and helping those who needed helping, as well as opening her own of course:
But sometimes Leilani still needs help reading cursive handwriting:
The whole family received sweaters from Ireland–they’re beautiful and very useful in the colder-than-usual winter this year in California:
Rosemary made Andy a great family album covering his ancestors and childhood (so far):
Long story: in one of the French Martine books that Rosemary passed on to Leilani, Martine sees a beautiful porcelain doll in an antique store, finds it at home, has to give it back, and then gets it for her birthday (after some tears). Leilani loves this story so much, she recreated it: she saw a porcelain doll at the thrift store with Sonja, who bought it for her, but the doll was stiff, just for show, so we sent it to Grandma who had it fixed. We’re not sure she remembered it when she opened her biggest box:
It was so big that Leilani wanted to save the paper and asked Jim to help so it wouldn’t tear:
Leilani was really happy to see the doll again, just like Martine:
More presents all around:
Including another Martine book that Daddy had to read right away:
Leilani likes to help Grandpa Jim open presents, and Grandpa likes to have someone help him:
After opening presents, Leilani was getting a bit wound up and needed to get outside:
We walked down to the playground nearby, picked pecans, hid the fake poinciana as a game, and walked back at dark. Leilani met and petted every cat along the street:
And Uncle David brought raclette cheese from Trader Joe’s in Pasadena again for another special raclette dinner:
