Looks like they made the NICE list!

We've been talking about it for weeks.  Using the old "Santa only visits and brings gifts to boys and girls who are good" negotiations with McKenzie.  It has helped!  Santa apparently had both girls on his "nice list" this year and brought them a whole bunch of presents.  I was not at ALL worried about Macy (she's always an angel)...but he obviously must not be watching ALL the time...as there have been many-a-time I beg to differ in regards to McKenzie these last few months...hehe...

 The sun finally, as Kenzie says, "WOKE UP", so we allowed her to finally drag us downstairs to check under the tree  (the baby gate helped quarantine her upstairs until we were ALL ready to go down TOGETHER)  :-)

 "Wow, are these all from Santa"?

 Macy loved playing with these maraca's  :-)

 Apparently Santa does not think our house in loud enough...he brought the girls a complete band set with an assortment of musical instruments  (I just may have to write him a letter to "thank" him for this).

 Macy learned how to do this over-night!

 Thanks Santa!

 Toby sits patiently in the background wondering if there is anything under the tree, or in his stocking this year.  Not sure why, but Santa seemed to have forgotten him the last couple years...  :-(  poor little pup.

 A kid can NEVER have too many of these!

 We stretched Christmas morning "gift opening" out for three plus hours.  Not because we had a ton of gifts, rather, the girls wanted to unwrap and play with each individual gift for a long time before moving on to the next one.  Made for a very fun, relaxing and enjoyable morning  :-)

 Not sure it will be like this for too many more years...as I understand most kids move at a faster pace when it comes to presents.  :-)

 A glow in the dark, top, spinny, flying thing-a-ma-bob...

 Not sure who liked it more, Kenzie or Daddy. I think Mckenzie liked watching Joe act like a - you know the saying -  "Kid at Christmas".  :-)

 Yippee!!!  Santa DID remember Toby this year!  He loves his new fetching toy!

 We just love our Toby dog to pieces  :-)

 Grandma & Grandpa Lee made the rounds visiting everyone again this year...we were the first stop on their way.

 Grandma & Macy!

This, right here, is pretty much what our entire Christmas Day consisted of...NICE!

p.s. - do you like Joe's new husker snuggie??  The girls picked it out and gave it to him for his birthday.  They knew it would be the perfect "napping with daddy" blanky...

***

Aunt Gayle arrived into town from Colorado around 8:00.  We just love when she comes to visit.  She has a her own room upstairs and all.  It's all HERS!  No one else has ever slept in it  :-)  Kenzie makes sure of it  :-)  It was nice having her here, because as soon as we got the kiddos down for bed, she helped us get the house & food ready for the big Harnisch shin-dig for the following morning  :-)

THANKS GAYLE!

Christmas Eve 2010

After a busy day full of nothingness (full of laying around, painting, playing with trains, Lifetime movies, afternoon drive to get toddler to nap)...we finally got Dressed in our Christmas Best and ready for the Christmas Eve Church service...

 notice anything different perhaps??

 Yep.  Momma got a new do!

 This is my first pic taken since going brunette (for the first time ever).  I was a little nervous...McKenzie told me "I look like a different girl"...she also told me "I looked like Aunt Gayle"...oh and she was also not afraid to tell me "that she didn't like it".  Oh the honesty of babes.  too late!  Get used to it chica.  :-)

 Macy doesn't seem to mind...but I have a feeling she'd love me no matter WHAT hair color I had!

 bein' silly

 peek-a-BOO!

 me and my girls  :-)

***

After our 5:00pm church service, it was a little surreal...this was the first time (I think ever), that we did not have some sort of family holiday function to attend.  We couldn't just go home.  That would just feel weird...so we drive into town and ate at China Buffet.  Oh MAN, was it tasty?!  I could be full for weeks  :-)  I thought we'd be the only people, in the world, eating out...but we actually ran into a few other families that we knew.  I think we maaay have a new little Harnisch family tradition on our hands  :-)

***

When we got home, McKenzie was getting pretty psyched about Santa's impending arrival.  There were a few items that needed to be taken care of...

 McKenzie picked out three cookies that she KNEW Santa would love (thanks Grandma Lee for the homemade cookies) and set out some milk. 

He's gonna need a little snack break by the time he makes it down our chimney.

****

NEXT...we must NOT forget about the reindeer.  Santa gave us some special reindeer food a few weeks back (Thanks Ashley for inviting us to the party where Santa visited and gave all the good boys and girls this cute little bag of sprinkly "food")  What a GREAT idea!!  :-)

 This poem reads:

Sprinkle on the Lawn at Night

The Moon will make it Sparkle Bright

As Santa's reindeer fly and roam

This food will guide them to your home.

 oooops.  missed a spot.

 Better sprinkle some over here too!  :-)

 She was having soo much fun!

The sprinkly food has been spread...and now Santa's reindeer will be fed!

***

theeen...we watched McKenzie's SPECIAL personalized message from Santa.  She received this video message a couple weeks ago, but thought it would be fun to watch again right before bed!

 She was REALLY paying attention this time!

 check out those dimples (that's when you know it's a sincere, GENUINE, smile).

click on this link below if you'd like to view the AWESOME personal message! 

Santa's Special Message for McKenzie

****

We read a couple Christmas books and OFF to bed she went.  geesh, wish goin' down could be this easy EVERY night!

I am SOO excited about our first Christmas as a family of four.  Plus, I think this is the first time we have a holiday she really "gets".  It feels amazing to have this power.  This power to control and begin our little families traditions.  It is up to me and Joe to create lasting memories for our girls and I feel as though today marked the beginning of the first major memorable moments that will be had by our biggest baby girl  :-)  yikes.  My throat got a little tight and achy with emotions as I typed that sentence.

Can't wait to wake up in the morn to one very excited little girl...I'm anxious to see what Santa leaves for her under the tree  :-)

***

Merry Christmas to all and to ALL a goodnight!

but wait.  one last thing...I leave you with this heartfelt song...it really gets my water-works a goin'.  Taps deep into what Christmas is ALL about.  Very beautiful, extremely moving.

I strongly encourage you to watch it through to the end...powerful words.  You'll be left speechless.  I promise.

Labor of Love - by Jill Phillips - a part of Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb of God" Album

Lee family Christmas

We played host to this year's "Lee Family" Christmas celebration.  As you may recall we got out of all hosting responsibilities last year as I was very pregnant with Macy and was actually on bed-rest this time last season.  So, I suppose it was our turn  :-)

 It's starting to look a lot like Christmas!  The presents (and people) have arrived

 I slaved in the kitchen all day.  No joke...I was on my feet most of the day prepping, slicing, dicing, cooking, baking and broiling today's meal!  As you can imagine, I don't spend too much time in the kitchen, so I enjoyed this nice "change of scenery".

 I prepared an Italian themed dinner.  Complete with Spaghetti, Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo, my Chicken, mushroom, artichoke, tomato and pesto pasta dish, garlic bread, cheesy garlic bread, salad and stuffed portabella mushrooms, etc...my mom brought a huge tray of homemade cookies!  yum!  And I'm glad that we had leftovers, so we'll be eating pasta for sometime to come.  :-)

 some intense conversation.

 Not sure what dad was saying here, but Erika looks very intrigued.  And check out Ally & Anna's spirited conversation  :-)

 Heather, you're crazy  :-)  whoa, watch out for Great Grandma!

check out Macy just chilling all by her lonesome to the far left...she is SUCH a good baby and totally loves entertaining herself.

These homemade Christmas dresses of McKenzie and Macy inspired us to search for the dresses mom made for us LONG LONG ago.  My mom was not much of a sewer and was certainly not much of a saver, so the fact that she held onto these adorable dresses all these years was kind of special.

This photo below was taken in 1981, I was about 1 & 1/2 years old!  We of course thought it would be fun to try and replicate this photo with our own little girls.  

Lisa, Heather, Keri & MEEE

So here we go...30 years later...Anna (Keri's daughter), Ally (Lisa's daughter), Danielle (Heather's daughter) and Macy (my daughter of course)...as you can see Macy was not too thrilled about the impromptu photoshoot.  She was hungry and wanted to start opening presents!

 How funny and coincidental that 30 years later, these dresses would fit our girls perfectly!  Erika, McKenzie & the boys were bummed that they did not have a dress that fit them (or probably not so much - hehe)

 Mom let us each keep our own dress.  I will treasure it forever.

 oh Ally, what a little HAM!

 Beautiful Danielle models her dress.

 And now it's Anna's turn  :-)

 Macy & Ally pose by the fireplace

 okie, dokie, let's get this party started.  And so the craziness of gift opening begins!

 This is all McKenzie has been asking for this year...she was so excited that she was shaking when she saw that it was a...

 "Cowgirl Jessie" doll!

 We decided to go ahead and keep the girls in their 30-year-old/new dresses for a little bit longer.

 Macy had fun and did a pretty good job crinking up the paper.

 Atta girl!

Toby (one tired pup), Danielle and her daddy, Chad.

As a gift for all of us girls, my dad wrapped and gave each of us a place setting from his mother's China collection. 

 They are beautiful and I will proudly display it in my family room forever and always.  Thanks Dad for the thoughtful and very touching family heirloom.  I will think of Grandma & Grandpa Lee every day that I see them  :-)

That night, while most of the kid were down stairs trashing the basement (oh well, big deal, they were out of our hair, nothing was broke and no one was hurt - hehe)...us adults played a fierce game of Catch-Phrase.  Boys vs. Girls.  I'll let you guess who won...and seven hours later the party was over.

***

We are looking forward to playing host to all the Harnisches this Saturday!  Should be JUST as much fun.  :-)

***

Last night, me, Joe and the girls drove to neighboring town Bennington for a fundraiser spaghetti feed dinner at the high school, benefiting sweet Nora.  Nora is the 2 year old daughter of friends, who was recently diagnosed with Leukemia.  She is doing well, is in remission, but has a long & challenging road to go.  The community came out in droves to show support to this amazing young family of five.  It was so nice and heartwarming to see such a huge crowd.  I hope the money raised will help alleviate some of the financial stresses that come along with a diagnosis such as this.  A burden, that is not fair for anyone to have to go through, especially those caring for their loved ones in their time of need.