christmas eve

i thought that wednesday morning was like a fairy tale christmas eve. the snow was falling in big fluffy flakes and it was sticking to all the tree branches (or as maddie calls them "tree sticks"). we haven't really had a good tree sticking snow so i had to take some pictures. growing up in florida, i really was dreaming of a white christmas and now i finally get to have them! the day would have been better if matt and i didn't have to work, but thankfully we were both able to get off between 2 and 3 in the afternoon.

madelyn had a really good day and wore her santa outfit (thanks, nana) until it was time to get ready for church. she had eaten apple sauce with her breakfast (at her request) and was a mess. so she took a shower with mommy before getting into her christmas dress. she ate two cups of apple sauce and was still asking for more (and that was on top of her waffle and banana breakfast).

her words for the day were "hey" and "sunshine". she just kept saying "hey, hey" all day. sometimes it was for "hi" and sometimes in a "hey come here" kind of way. i think that she got that one from daddy, but i have noticed that i say it more than i thought i did since she started saying it. and then she was requesting that i "sing" a song about the "sun". the only one i could think of is "you are my sunshine". madelyn loved it! she would lay her head on my lap when i would start singing it and look me in the eyes. i don't know why this song makes her so cuddly, but it was enough to get me to sing it like 30 times. and then i decided that i couldn't just sing to her all day - it was nap time.


she didn't believe me that we were going to church at night. i would say "are we going to go to church tonight?" and she would say "no". while we were getting ready after maddie's nap, i let her watch "the grinch that stole christmas" (cartoon version). i wasn't sure that she would like it, but she loves her dr. seuss books so i thought that it was worth a try. she loved it! when the grinch first gets the idea to steal christmas and gets that evil grin on his face, madelyn said "uh-oh"! she was really into the songs and everything.

at church they were only doing childcare for kids 3 and under, so i thought that we would try bringing maddie in the service - at least for the singing. she was dancing and loving every minute of the songs and lights. it was cute because she would look around with this big smile on her face and then it would fade and her dancing would slow in a "why aren't any of you dancing" sort of way. but then she would look back at the stage and get right back into it! the girl loves to dance! once the actual message part of the service began, matt ran maddie to the nursery were there were a ton of kids to play with! he said that she never even looked back.

after church we picked up some chinese food and headed home. after a quick dinner maddie went straight to bed so that matt and i could get ready for "santa". it only took matt two hours to put together the play kitchen and we were in bed by 9:30. (we watched "tropic thunder" while wrapping and assembling since we figured it would have a pretty simple plot line. later we took in a little of the "a christmas story" marathon.)

and here is a picture of all our hard work ready to greet madelyn first thing on christmas morning! i love surprising people and was really looking forward to the look on maddie's face when she saw all the new additions to the gifts under the tree (most of which are from grandparents). love.