Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2008

On Christmas Eve, we went to John's aunt Nayda's house. Before we left, I tried to get a picture of the girls in front of the Christmas tree in their Christmas dresses. It was impossible, so John stepped in and tried to hold them there for a quick photo.

At least I got Avery to smile in this one!

Reagan, showing me her beautiful dress

Gabby and Reagan - Don't they look beautiful???

Avery, Gabby and Reagan

Lauren, Joaquin, Avery Gabby and Reagan

Reagan, John, and Nila - I love this picture!

The Fernandez Family - Lauren, Doreen, Jose, and Gabby

Avery - she loves that she's walking around now!

Nila, or Abuela

Nila and Reagan

The Mendez Family

Maribel and Debbie

Avery was snuggling into her Abuela - it was so sweet!

Avery and Nila

Jesus, Debbie and Josh

Joaquin and Marcelo

Nayda - trying on her new scarf

Reagan and Jose

Reagan tried on Maribel's new scarf and thought she looked pretty fancy!

Avery - opening presents

Doreen gave Reagan this real digital camera for kids! She loved it!

Doreen's mother Catherine gave Avery this Elmo/Cookie Monster ball that shakes ... Joaquin thought it was pretty cool, and whenever it started to shake, he gasped and made this funny expression!

Reagan was having fun playing with Josh's toys (cars, airplanes, helicopters) and I guess she thought the nativity scene was missing a helicopter :)

Whenever Joaquin comes to our house, he always loves playing with this toy microwave that my friend Nicole gave Reagan for her birthday last year. I told Maribel I would get it for him for Christmas, since I knew he'd love it. At Diane's cookie exchange, we were talking about the Christmas shopping that still needed to get done and Diane said she'd be going to Toys-R-Us the next day, so she'd be happy to pick it up for me. When she got there, they were all out of microwaves, but said they had some at their Rt. 4 location. I was at Target so I was going to pick it up after ... then I was talking to Nicole and she said she was near there and she'd be happy to go get it. When she got there, they said they couldn't find them in the back. So, the next day, Diane went to a different Toys-R-Us in NY ... still no microwaves! Then she went back to the original Paramus location, where they had just received a shipment and she found one!!!! So, the purpose of this long explanation about a microwave is that 4 separate attempts were made to find it, all by 2 very good friends of mine ~ THANKS Nicole and Diane!!!!

Brothers ~ John and Jesus

After everyone finished opening presents, it was midnight and Avery was WIRED! She gets SO goofy when she's tired ... we were playing Peek-a-boo behind the doorway and she was cracking up!

I wish I could say they fell asleep as soon as we got into the car, but they actually stayed awake for the majority of the drive home! Reagan didn't fall asleep until about 5 minutes before we pulled into the garage ... I took this picture just before we got them out, around 12:50 AM.

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Christmas Day

Avery's favorite stocking stuffer: a new toothbrush!

Nana and Grandpa sent Reagan this princess tent and the girls loved it!

Avery loved following her big sister into the tent!

Reagan loved getting a new princess dress and dress-up jewelry, so she looked the part in her princess tent!

Since Reagan loves playing on other kids' pianos at playdates, I told John I thought we should get her one of her own. She loved it!

It was a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas morning! Then we rushed around the house, packing for our trip to Utah :)