Christmas Day

Good morning! Merry Christmas Lily! It's 5:00 a.m. in the Couper household and there is one very excited little bug.

On Christmas morning the girls are thrilled to welcome Nana and Grampa Jim who arrived in Vancouver on Christmas Eve.

Santa must have had a very big sleigh to carry all these gifts to our house.

Time to turn the lights on and get ready for the day to begin.

The girls snuggle with Nana & Grampa.

Lily explains to her little sister that Santa came and brought presents.

Grampa Jim gives Meelie a lift so she can see the whole pile.

Rather than looking at it from afar, Lily decides to plant herself right in the middle of it!

An artistic shot....Dylan's doing.

Ooooh...an even nicer one! Go Dylan, go!

And so he does. Nice!

One last picture of the lovely scene before it gets completely destroyed.

OK it's 9am and Auntie Jill and Uncle Matt have arrived and we're ready to open some gifts.

Lily opens her umbrella from Auntie Jill.

It's a crocodile umbrella! Or alligator. None of us in the room really know the difference. We agree to let Lily watch nature shows when she gets older so she can educate us all.

Lily looooves the idea of having her own umbrella. She has been *borrowing* Mommy's and Daddy's which means one of us has to lean over and hold it for her because it is too big and heavy.

When Lily realizes it is a crocodile or alligator or whatever reptile it is she is a bit scared. So Nana tells her it is a turtle. We're not sure she's convinced but she seems to be willing to accept that explanation for now.

Until she decides it is a "froggie 'brella". Nobody can convince her otherwise from this point on.

Lily models her new scarf from Auntie Jilly.

One of Lily's favourite toys from the day is the tissue paper. Predictable, no?!?!?

Look how happy she is!

It keeps her busy for at least half an hour.

The bag from one of Nana's gifts makes a most stylish chapeau.

Lily checks out some of the many cool clothes she got from Baba & Grampa Hunter.

Nana wraps Amelia up in the shawl she received as a gift.

Lily helps Daddy open one of his gifts.

New shoes from Mommy! Lily isn't super impressed. But she does concede that Mommy is, generally, a good shoe shopper.

Lily gets inside the suitcase Daddy gave to Auntie Jilly. She wants to go on a trip too!

"See? I told you...I don't take up THAT much space..."

"OK I've had enough now. I don't think I could go on a very long trip. Sorry Auntie Jilly, you'll have to leave me at home after all. I know this will make you so sad" :(

"But maybe Mommy's suitcase will be different....except probably not cause it's, uh, exactly the same! Daddy did a most excellent job of choosing the suitcases."

Lily opens her biggest present last.

"It's a train! With a mountain. And a tunnel."

"And a little boy!! Is the boy inside the box too?"

Lily is very good at bringing gifts to people and providing assistance in opening them.

Daddy and Grampa Jim set up the train set on the coffee table.

It's got multi levels!

Lily shows off her hand-made Eeyore hat from Baba.

It is hard to get a good shot because at this point in the day and after several sugar-filled treats, Lily is incapable of standing still!

View from above while she is *busy* stacking some boxes that were already stacked until she unstacked them all...

Dinner time!!! No turkey for this Christmas...we did a big one at Thanskgiving...it's a roast beef type dinner this year. Yum!!

Lily sits at the table like a big girl. And Amelia, well Amelia just sits ON the table. Best seat in the house, actually. If only she had teeth and was able to enjoy the big people food.

Merry Christmas from the Coupereadles/Cheadleoupers!!