This is my favorite morning of the year!  I love seeing how surprised and excited they are to see their presents all out together!  For hours, we just play with and enjoy our kids… there’s nothing better in all of the world!

Noelle was so happy!!!  She didn’t ask for much, so I don’t think she expected very much.  I love her heart.  She definitely enjoys giving more than receiving, although she was so thrilled.

Anna Kate has learned from Noelle to appreciate each others’ toys… if you put them altogether and share, you get a lot more!

Noelle is such a dreamer about Paris… it’s adorable.  I usually try to bring back toys from the past to see if they notice.  Noelle was the winner this year.  She was cracking up!

I found this house at my spring consignment sale last year for $10 I think.  Since I already had it, I talked up an “indoor house” to Anna Kate all year.  I would say things like, “Wouldn’t it be cool to have your own house inside our house!?!”  She went right along with it, and it was exactly what she had in her little mind.  Yay!

The age of dress-up!  Noelle will only do it when her friends come over and insist (age 6), but Anna Kate is changing characters constantly every single day (age 3 1/2).  My how quickly time passes… I make a big deal out of every costume change, because it is a big deal.  She’s a big deal!

Ask and you shall receive…

Rose enjoying her presents (after she got the hang of it all), and Daddy enjoying Rose.

This silly little powder puff was at Payless of all places on clearance for like $1.00.  I think I even got it free with a coupon.  But don’t let that fool you.  If it hadn’t been out on Christmas morning, there would have been tears.  Noelle has wished for this whatever it is for a long time! 

And she’s found some eye shadow too!

Got this $30 kit for free too at Khol’s on sale with a $10 coupon they sent in the mail.  I probably shouldn’t tell you guys this, but I’m extremely frugile and feel like it’s deceptive not to share some of my secrets.  Rapunzel costume was second hand… got it for almost free because it was missing the Rapunzel logo, but I sewed on another one from something else.  No biggie.  Rapunzel hair, $1, Dollar Tree!  The princess castle was Rose’s gift from Poppa and Rara (she opened it the night before), but she didn’t really find it until later in the week.  She was too busy with everything else.  Rapunzel claimed it!

Rose was obsessed with her hats and the recycled Christmas singing light-up snow toy!  I had to change my camera settings to try to get some of the effect of the light and her fascination!

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Here’s our cinnamon roll Christmas tree we’ve made tradition for breakfast on Christmas Day… a big treat for the Pond girls!  After our PondFam5 morning of fun, we were anxious for all of our grandparents to arrive for Christmas lunch!  And what a lunch that would be!

This is what the girls saw when they came downstairs Christmas morning!  I must admit, every single thing I bought was either second hand or on sale… $10 here and there… I stretched our money so far, it looks like way more than it is… but I want the kids to remember what their Christmas looked like, so I hope this doesn’t seem over the top.  I enjoy shopping for deals all year round and tucking their treasures away up high in our closet.  I get so excited thinking about the girls’ excitement on Christmas morning all through the year!

This was Rose’s little stash… she didn’t even know what it was, so hers will keep growing.  My favorite thing we gave Rose was a “R” necklace wrapped around the Build-A-Bear horsey. 

This was Anna Kate’s couch.  Her favorite thing is dress-up, so that is what she got!  She loved all the little extras, as all the asked for was a Jessie doll and outfit!  That was definitely my favorite thing we gave Anna Kate!  She wanted us to call her “Jessie Kate” all Christmas day! 

This is Noelle’s couch (can you tell)… lots of make-up/jewelry and lots of PINK!  My favorite thing we gave Noelle was her necklaces because I know she will enjoy wearing them so much!  Her favorite thing was the make-up, so if you see her face transforming on the blog from picture to picture, just know we are letting her experiment and have fun doing something that she loves!

There’s a lot of Justice on this side!  We shop Justice redlines and take an additional 40% off… that’s how I roll.  She begged for a rain jacket.  I found the green Polka Dotted one at Kid to Kid for $7.99, plus 20% off… few examples I’m seriously not joking when I say this didn’t cost a lot.  The little piece sign 126 piece make-up box was $2.00 after my Khol’s coupons (it was a $30 box originally) and that’s the main thing she wanted.

As our extended family and friends present time wrapped up, we began to talk of hearing reindeer hooves and bells outside.  We kept asking the girls to listen closely because we thought we kept hearing signs of Santa.  Right as Anna Kate peeked through the shutters, Santa appeared on the back porch!  She was in shock!  They all were!

Rose immediately ran up to Santa saying “Hi Santa!” just like he was an old friend.  After that, the night was simply magical!

Each girl ran to Santa in turn, and he was so kind and excited to see them too!

Anna Kate was a little star struck to have Santa in our house!  She’s my timid one, so she had to take a second to process everything.

Once it clicked in her head that Santa was really at her house, and everything was okay, she got super excited!  She did ask Mike why he came through the back door and not down the chimney, and Mike said because he knew the children were awake, and he didn’t have their presents.  Good call.  She was okay with that!

After Rose had a little one-on-one time, the girls all gathered in Santa’s lap for some Christmas carols.  Noelle had her jungle bells and even baby Rose joined in the singing.  It was amazing!

After all the initial visiting and singing came to an end, Santa gave the most incredible performance of “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” that we have ever heard.  It was from his perspective, of course.

He was so animated, and the girls eyes were so big.  They giggled and then deep chuckled but never took their eyes off of Santa.  I just can’t describe how special it was for our family.

Mom was touched by his sweet temperament, talent and overall countenance of Christmas spirit and love!

This was a Christmas Eve visit we will never forget!!!  If you would like Santa to come to your house next year, he can!!!  He works out all the details with the parents ahead of time and is very flexible.  He memorizes all the kids names, ages, and even asks about their personalities and what they want for Christmas.  He’s coming to your house as a friend of the family, and you will feel just that.  Everyone needs to experience this at least once while the kids are little.  I think Anna Kate was the perfect age, although Rose really got into it as well.  Noelle was charmed by the whole experience!

Please call Chuck Lee and visit with him about a Santa visit to your house.  His phone number is 972-978-9535.  He is fully certified with all the bells and whistles and is a family friend of some of our dearest friends, so we trust him completely.  I really hope this will bless another DFW family out there like it has ours… and he is the nicest man you will ever meet… he’s the real deal!

Mom and Dad came to our house this year for Christmas, and the girls were tickled to have Jax for the holidays too!

Noelle was so proud to give Anna Kate a puppy dog purse…

John and Michele know this, but Poppa plays the “Eh, eh!” game with all of his grandkids.  I remember him doing it with me when I was a little girl, actually.  The girls try to get away and as they run off, he says “Eh, eh!” and grabs them back.  After a few tries to get away, he lets them run off and escape.  Of course, they run right back to play again.

Rose is too tired to play but is cracking up watching Anna Kate!

Poppa grabbed her back after she tried to get away… check out Rose!

And here she is making her escape!  Fancy Nancy, remember when you gave Noelle the Pooh bear Anna Kate is holding for her baby present when you and Brother Man were dating… we still love it!

Noelle was Santa this year and brought everyone their presents, one by one from the dining room.  Anna Kate’s #1 request was up next!

Her Jessie doll!  In this picture, she is saying, “It’s my Jessie doll!!!”  She’s been waiting a long time for that little doll.

This picture is just precious!  The purple crocs crack me up… Rarely does Rose not have on crocs around the house… it’s pretty hysterical!  I think they’re even on backwards, because, of course, she put them on all by herself!

Noelle felt sorry for Jax, so she drew him a picture for his kennel that said, “Peace and goodwill!”  She’s my little giver!

More presents and cuddles…

Aunt Joe sent this beautiful painting… I am blown away she entrusts us with her works of art.  It’s so special!

The Eberts sent really great books for us to enjoy and Brother Man’s family sent great movies… thanks guys!

This is the perfect end to the perfect evening… never want to forget this stage, lol!

The PondFam5 has gotten into a rhythm of our Christmas Eve traditions.  After we took pics outside of the girls in their pjs, we came in, put on aprons, and got to topping Mike’s homemade pizza!

He handmade the dough, the tomato sauce and had all the toppings ready for each person to choose from… best pizza ever!

Rara brought some awesome cookies that were our “examples!”  Lol…

Then we got to baking cookies for Santa!

Here’s a cute expression from our sweet Anna Kate!

I love this picture of all the girls working together on cookies for Santa!

The girls and I were all in our pjs ready to kick off our Christmas Eve festivities.  I wanted to take a picture of them, and they begged to go outside.  I asked them where we should take their picture, and they saw Santa in his bed at a neighbor’s house down the street and begged to take it there.  That one little picture (the last one in this post) led to a photo op for all of us!  Mike was cooking, so he grabbed a sweater really fast so he could join us!  We were having fun, and the anticipation was building…

You can’t go outside here without seeing neighbors and friends.  Creighton and Lesleigh are sweet friends of the girls and so is Julia!

The girls were all smiles and ready for whatever the night before Christmas would bring!

On Christmas Eve, Mia and Georgia came over for lunch and games.  We called it “Holiday Confusion” because they spent most of their time putting together a jack-o-latern puzzle, lol!

Rose was having fun until she colored on the pieces of Hangman that couldn’t be erased.  Fun!

And this pretty much got the holidays off to a great start! 

Go Rose!  God help us through the terrible 2’s!!!

We caught someone about to put out presents at our house this Christmas Eve!  Santa stopped by before the kids went to sleep, so he told them a story that happened to him the night before Christmas.  After his narrative, he told them to go to bed, and he’d be back to put out their presents when they were asleep.  It was so incredible… these are three of the happiest little girls in the world right about now!  If you want Santa to do a “sneak peak” at your house next year, call Chuck Lee at 972-978-9535.  Best Christmas Eve ever!!!