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Opening presents is fun, but playing with those new toys is even more fun. So, once we got home, it was time to play. Molly opened up and built her GoldieBlox dunk tank. Then it was time to start tossing the ball. Nacho the dog is ready to get wet.

And, Nacho’s making a splash.

Leah received 6 Lego sets this Christmas, which sounded awesome to her. She’s a huge Lego fan, and would happily spend much of every day building.

There wasn’t too much time to play though, as extended family from Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina were due to arrive in Maryland on the 26th.

After opening presents at home, we headed to Grams’s house for breakfast and more presents. Leah’s got a big one here. What could be in it?

This girl loves her Legos. And over 600 pieces doesn’t scare her.

Leah’s not the only one. Molly loves her Legos, too.

Good things often come in small packages.

Wow! A jar of Jam!

After these two movies, we should be able to train our own dragons.

Grammy got some fancy kitchen towels, handmade by Jen.

These minion mittens had to get the award for cutest gift.

And here’s Grammy and me after all the fun was over.

When putting the girls to bed on Christmas Eve, I gave them two rules:

1. They were not allowed to go downstairs until I tell them to. No sneaking down in the middle of the night.
2. They were not allowed to wake anyone (parents, grandparents, their sister) before 7:00AM. If they woke up earlier, I suggested getting their phone or iPad and playing on it until 7:00AM.

Neither Jen or I slept well that night. It seemed like there was a lot of people up throughout the night. At 4:30AM, I heard the door to my office open, which I assumed was a girl (likely Leah) getting a phone or iPad to play on. Crazy early, but kids get excited about Christmas.

At 6:30AM, I went in the girls’ room. Leah was asleep, and Molly was playing on the iPad, so I assumed Molly was the culprit. I asked her when she had gotten up. Her response - one something. Yes, as in 1AM. I didn’t believe her. I asked if she had gone to get the iPad at 4:30AM. She said she had, because she had gotten her phone at 1:30AM and it’s battery was dead at 4:30AM, so she switched to the iPad.

So, Molly got a stern talking to about how that was way to early to wake up. I had trouble coming down too hard on her, both because it was Christmas and because she had technically followed the rules. When I suggested playing games if they woke up early, I was thinking about waking up at 6:00AM, not 1:00AM, but I didn’t say that.

Despite her lack of sleep, Molly was wired and ready to go. Leah, on the other hand, had to be woken at 7:00AM. But she soon was caught up in the excitement as well.

The girls went through their stockings quickly. Then they of course helped others with theirs. The girls are really excited about the socks Santa brought G’Mom.

After stockings, it was time for presents amongst ourselves. We got the girls these fun animal chairs to go with the table in their room.

Molly gave Leah a stuffed elephant that was so soft she had to touch it to her face.

Nice calendar, G’Mom.

Hmmmm… What could this be? We had to explain Operation to Leah, but I think she’ll like it. She did get scared the first time she tried it and touched the wall with the tweezers, but it didn’t scare her off from trying again.

Molly’s very excited about this new GoldieBlox set. What could be more fun than building your own dunk tank?

Leah gave Jen some of the most exciting gifts possible - a tailor's ham and a seam roll. What 5 year old doesn’t want to buy their mom ironing accessories?

That was just the beginning of the fun on Christmas Day. We were soon off to Grams house to keep things rolling.

As usual, our church had lots of of offerings around Christmas. This included a service on Christmas Eve Eve for those who wouldn’t be around Christmas Eve, five services on Christmas Eve, and a Christmas Day service. Two of the services on Christmas Eve were family services, led by and geared towards kids. Both Molly’s choir and Leah’s choir were involved, so the girls and I went to both of them.

Of course, fancy Christmas attire is not required for church but that doesn’t stop our girls. And fancy clothes deserve fancy earrings as well. Molly’s wanted hoop earring for some time, and Aunt EA and Uncle Scott were happy to oblige with a pair. They didn’t expect them to be so big, though. Of course, size matters not. Molly loves them.

Here’s Molly’s choir singing their special song. They also led the congregational singing.

I accompanied Molly’s choir with some fingerpicking.

Leah’s choir doesn’t use folders with music, which leaves their hands available for hand motions.

After church, we headed to Grams’s house for soup and sandwiches. Per tradition, we opened one gift on Christmas Eve.

Grammy gave both girls very nice backpacks.

After we got home, Jen presented the girls with their Christmas jammies. This year, she actually purchased the shirt, then made pants to go with it.

Here they are in their brand new jammies.

Cookies and milk for Santa, carrots for the reindeer.

We always read Twas the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve. This year, the girls got G’Mom and Grampa to read to them.

Then is was off to bed for the girls to get a good night’s sleep before the big day. Well, at least one of them got a good night’s sleep. The other... well, more on that in the next post.

The girls are very much enjoying karate. Last week was Molly's first belt test, where she would test to earn a yellow stripe on her yellow belt (note that belt rank may differ from one form of karate to another). She's been practicing and studying for several weeks, and she was finally ready to test.

But, first, Leah got to show off her karate skills. Leah’s karate class is too young for belt tests, but they do have ceremonies to culminate a specific topic they've been working on. These include demonstrations for families. Molly and I got to watch, but sadly Jen did not. She arrived with us, but then had to turn around and head home when we realized the girls had forgotten their bag with gear and belts (which is why Leah is not wearing her belt).

Leah led their initial chant.

Left fighting stance

Nice punch.

Her kick was so quick, I couldn’t get it all in the picture.

A front kick requires an open mouth.

Strutting is important when you block an attacker.

When the target is up high, you need to be on your toes to punch.

Side kick

This session focused on balance, and all of them got a stripe for the belt and a certificate, as well as a high five from sensei. Since Leah was missing her belt, she had to wait to get her stripe until a few minutes later when Jen arrived with belt in hand.

Then it was on to Molly's test. It was intense, including terminology, techniques, katas, kumite (sparring) and something I can only describe as toughness (getting hit in the stomach, sat on while doing a plank, stepped on while on the ground). It lasted over 2 hours. Here’s Molly sparring a bit.

Sorry that I don't have more pictures of her, but the place was packed with parents and there's only a little window to look through.

Molly did great and passed the test and earned her yellow stripe. Congratulations, Molly!

Acquiring the tree was not enough for the girls - they wanted to decorate it as well. So, we broke out the ornaments and put on the Christmas music. Leah hung the first ornament.

And many more.

Trying to avoid having all the ornaments along the bottom of the tree, Mommy gave Molly a bit of a lift.

And a bit more of a lift.

I can lift, too.

And my shoulders get them even higher.

Eventually, parent ladders give way to real ladders. Leah wasn't up for climbing up high, but Molly was happy to.

I still do the angel on top, as long arms are required.

Here’s the tree, fully decorated. Oh, and some goobers in front of it.

Strike a pose.

And another pose.

Again this year we headed to Greenway Farms to cut down our Christmas tree. They have lots of trees to choose from and cut down yourself. This year we also tried out the pit beef, which was quite good. Sadly, the hay ride was not running since the ground was so wet from the rain the day before.

Before picking our tree, we had a photo shoot. For our Christmas card picture this year, Jen decided she wanted something among the Christmas trees. So, we set up a makeshift photo studio amongst the rows of trees. Between camera, tripod, Wi-Fi remote, external flash, wireless flash trigger, flash stand, and my hat as a make-shift lens hood, we got the shot.

Then we packed up the photo gear and walked the rows of trees to find the perfect one. Here are the girls with our chosen White Pine before cutting it down.

We’ve done a lot of painting around here lately. First, we painted our main level bathroom, then our bedroom, and finally the girls’ bathroom. The girls were excited to help on the latter two. As usual, they tired quickly, but were enthusiastic while they lasted. They even came up with a song.

Three weeks later, when we painted their bathroom, the song had changed slightly.

And, in case you were wondering about Molly’s hair in that video, here’s a picture of her crazy updo. She needed her hair up to keep it out of the paint, but Mommy went beyond the usual ponytail this time.

We’ve had a lot of singing around here lately. First, Molly sang with her choir in church. Note that in her new older kids’ choir, she even has music in a fancy folder to read off.

The next week, Leah sang with her choir.

Lastly, the girls were a part of our church's Walk to Bethlehem. They were part of the heavenly host, and got to sing Gloria for each group that passed by. It was raining, so they wore ponchos over their angel outfits. Leah wouldn't go out without Jen, so Jen joined in the fun as well.

Like last year, we met up with other kids at our backdoor neighbors’ house before trick-or-treating. Here’s a picture of most of them before they swarmed the houses.

This year I went trick-or-treating with the girls while Jen manned our front door. We spent most of our time walking around with Jordan, Haley, Madison, and their cousins.

As always, our neighborhood is great for trick-or-treating. As you can guess, the girls came home with a lot of candy after only an hour of walking around.

These two superheroes were happy to hang out with the speedy Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles.