Is it Chistmas yet?

We decided to give the girls an early Christmas present. It's too big to bring with us to Soda Springs tomorrow, so when Gwen woke up this morning, I hid in the living room with the video camera while Logan let her out of the crib. At first, Gwen didn't really notice the play kitchen in the living room; she saw me sitting on the couch with the camera and headed straight for me. I hurried and said, "Merry Christmas!" and suddenly she saw it. She yelled, "Merry Chri-cus!" and immediately went for her new toy. It took Logan three hours to put this little kitchen together, but it was worth it. The girls haven't stopped playing with it yet. Gwen loves the microwave. She puts her food - usually some sort of fruit or a can of soup - into a bowl, puts it inside the plastic microwave, pushes some buttons, then goes "mmmmmm.... beep beep beep!" So funny! She does this over and over again. She started figuring out the stove next. The stoves lights up and makes noises. Gwen's been frying a waffle. Sometimes she moves it with a spoon onto a plate with some ice cream. I'm going to let her make breakfast from now on.

Tomorrow we are traveling to Soda Springs and staying for a few days. I'm very excited for Christmas this year (as I am every year.) This is Phoebe's first, and she's just old enough to pull apart some wrapping paper. She'll probably like playing with the paper more than with what she unwraps, but that's okay. Gwen is old enough this year to understand that toys are underneath all the decorative paper. I'm so excited to see her reactions! When I was a little kid, my mom had exciting Christmas mornings with me opening presents. Everything I got, I gave a huge reaction. My eyes and mouth would get extremely round, and I'd yell, "Crayons!!!!!!" I'm hoping Gwen gets that excited. She may be too young yet, but who knows. I'm also looking forward to Logan's brother calling from Brazil. Last time he got to call, Gwen wasn't talking very much, but now I'm hoping that she'll get to say hello and have a little conversation with him in Gwen language. The convo will probably go like this: "Hello? Hi, Uckle Brenna. Wadda? (Then she'll repeat anything that he says. If he says "I love you" she'll go... ) Love you, too! Bye!"

Christmas is in three days! We can't wait to see our family and make lots of happy memories with the girls!