The LaRoche Family: Better Late Than Never, right?...Our Christmas!

We had such a FANTASTIC Christmas (5 total)! It was busy, but well worth it and so fabulous to have Jeff home for 3 weeks. :o)

Christmas #1 - We spent the night before Christmas Eve with my Dad's side of the family. We had a wonderful Italian dinner at my cousin, Jamie's house. The kids played and then they got to open up all their gifts after dinner. Grace received a microphone that she absolutely LOVES! She serenaded us with many versions of "Twinkle Little Star." Emersyn got a some cute clothes and a bee that vibrates for teething and plays music.

Singing really loud!

Grace and my cousin's little girl, Abby playing the piano and singing Christmas songs. I'm not sure what the future holds, but Grace loves to perform.

I just love this picture!

A little sleepy and sitting on her Great Poppie's lap.

My cousin, Jamie's daughter, Anna, reading the Christmas story from the Bible.

Getting ready for her performance.

Chewing on her bee.

Christmas #2 - Christmas Eve morning we went over to Jeff's parent's house to open presents and have prime rib! Yummy! :o) Grace got a "Fur Real" pet dog that she calls Fifi and/or Fluffy (depends on the day). It's perfect because she can walk it on a leash, it barks, cries and whines and if she decides to be mean (which sometimes happens with our real dog) it can't bite! And Emersyn received some much needed pjs and some toys.

Great PaPa and his girls.

My sister-in-law, Tracey, and our beautiful niece, Lila.

Christmas #3 - Christmas Eve night we went to my Mommaw's house to spend Christmas with my Mom's family. We ate a delicious steak and lobster dinner! A tradition my Papa started before he died. :o) Then opened presents and Santa made an early delivery for the girls. Grace got a scooter and Emersyn got a rider toy that has several stages as she grows.

The whole family.

Notice all the jars full of candy sitting on the table in the bottom right of the picture. My grandmother has always had candy sitting on her coffee table...that's one of the best part of visiting her house!

My grandma and her girls.

Not the best picture, but it was hard getting all of them to look and smile for the camera. LOL

This little rider is so neat.

A scooter from Santa.

We had a mountain of presents to open.

Emersyn sleeping on her Great Mommaw.

She never lets anyone hold her and rock her to sleep.

I guess she has the special grandma touch. :o)

Christmas #4 - Christmas morning we spent at our house with just the 4 of us! The girls received a book that Jeff and I recorded about the "First Christmas" and they, also, got to see what Santa left them in their stockings. Plus, Santa decided to help himself to our brownies and milk and left a million crumbs on our kitchen floor! He even found our Santa note pad and wrote thegirls a little letter! ;o) (Both girls had fallen asleep on the way home Christmas Eve and weren't able to write Santa a note or leave cookies out.) After looking at all Santa's goodies that he left the girls...they opened all their presents from Jeff and I. We made cinnamon rolls for breakfast and watched the Disney Christmas parade on TV.

Santa and his helper worked really hard setting all this up. ;o)

Grace's gifts from Santa.

Notice the black square thing...if you guessed makeup, you were right!

That's all Grace asked Santa to bring her when she sat on his lap.

Emersyn's gifts from Santa

Cheesing it because she was soooo excited about getting her guitar from Santa.

We've had many performances with her microphone and guitar.

She told Jeff he needed to build her a pink stage to stand on! LOL

Maybe another "Taylor Swift" in the making?

Riding on her zebra.

Checking out her zebra Santa brought.

Grace helping Em open her presents. So sweet!

Emmie's 1st baby doll

Princess Ariel

Taking a little nap after opening all their presents.

It was only 10:30AM and they woke up only an hour and half earlier.

Christmas #5 - Christmas afternoon we went over to my parent's house for a late lunch of smoked ham and brisket, which was to die for. My dad did a great job! Then we opened presents and Santa made his final stop! Grace got a doll house which is the ONLY toy that has EVER kept her attention for more than 10 minutes! And Emersyn got the cutest interactive play mat that plays music and has a mobile that she actually can pull on and won't fall on her face. LOL!

Then after all the presents were opened and the girls spent some time playing with all their new toys...we all headed back to our house for a "sleep over" (Grace has been wanting my parents and brother to spend the night at our house for a while and they so sweetly obliged! :o), cleaning up of our Christmas tree that decided to fall over (I was so very thankful that no was hurt, but we did have 2 of our most precious ornaments break...Grace's 1st Christmas ornament that my Mom bought her and Emersyn's 1st Christmas ornament that Jeff and I bought her...BUT great news is that I was able to find them on the internet and replace both of them. Thank goodness for technology!) and great snacks!

Jeff drying dishes after lunch.

Checking out her new doll house.

Hmmm...what's all this? This sure looks fun!

Showing off the matching dresses the girls got. I'm pretty sure they are going to wear these for Easter.

Grace eating snacks in the living room watching cartoons.

She looks really mad in this picture, but I promise she is not.

I just caught her off guard. :o)

Christmas pjs

Sticker fun with Uncle Chad

The girls, as usual, were spoiled with all the goodies they were given by everyone! I felt like it took an eternity to get everything organized again. And we were running out of room in the playroom...so Grace and I decided we needed to get rid of some toys. We went through them and decided we needed to give them to some boys and girls that don't have any toys. Grace wanted to go knock on their doors to give them to them, but I told her I didn't know where they lived and that we would take them to a shelter and she thought that was a GREAT idea! Such a wonderful lesson for her to learn. :o)