Warning: This will be a long post. But, it’s full of pictures of an adorable little girl, so it’s well worth the read!

Our Christmases are always “messed up.” We spend Christmas Eve at my parents’ house, which is when my family has traditionally opened presents, so, rather than dragging all of our presents for Lucy to Tennessee, we modified our celebration and open our gifts here on Christmas Eve morning.

This year, we opened stockings on Dec. 23. I picked up a bunch of little stocking stuffers at Party City for no more than $1 each and a couple of little princess toys, and they were a HUGE hit! We also got Lucy a Hello Kitty digital clock off Amazon for her stocking but, after a couple of minutes, it stopped working. We’ll be calling them to get a refund.

Lucy was SUPER excited to open her presents the next morning. She did really well this year by not disrupting them as they sat under the tree. She really didn’t go near them as well. I was one of those kids who sat by the tree, shaking presents and trying to guess what was inside the wrapping, so I was pretty impressed with my girl. She got some awesome things – an Ariel doll, a train set, a shopping cart, some Strawberry Shortcake DVDs, play food, a Barbie karaoke machine and a personalized Minnie Mouse blanket. Her “big” gift was a train table, which she loves. Yep. That’s my girl – princesses and trains.

A few hours later, we headed to my parents’ house. Although it fell on a Monday, we chose not to go up on Friday because we didn’t want to ask someone to come check on our cats.

When we arrived, we hung out and Lucy made cookies with my mom for Santa. It was quiet since my brother and his family weren’t there, but Lucy loved getting all the attention. After our traditional dinner of Chow Mein, we headed to the living room to open presents. Lucy was SO excited to give everyone our gifts (she had been trying to ever since we walked through the door). And, of course, she was excited to open her own gifts!

After all the presents were opened, Joe, my brother and I headed out to see a movie (The Guilt Trip. It was pretty funny.) When we returned, my dad read Lucy her 24th book, “The Night Before Christmas.” I feel like I should have had Joe take the picture. He says he’s their adopted son.

And, Lucy put out her cookies for Santa and went to bed.

On Christmas morning, Lucy was SUPER excited to see what Santa had left for her. She waited fairly patiently for almost an hour until we knew my parents were awake and could go over to their house. She was not disappointed! Santa brought her a princess mp3 player that play music and the princess stories, a Cinderella doll, and a box with a bunch of princess dress up clothes and accessories!

She and Daddy also read her note from Santa (thanks, Uncle Randy, since Mommy and Daddy forgot to write one!)

And, Snow White joined us for the rest of the day.

Joe’s parents came up for lunch, as they do every year, and we had a great time. I love that our families get along so well and spend the respective holidays together.

I cannot wait until next Christmas. Seeing the magic through my daughter’s eyes makes it so much more fun.