Christmas Morning {or the first time I've seen Anna Claire and Mallory speechless in a long time}

The girls both woke up around 6:30 Christmas morning {Mallory showed up in our bedroom first followed shortly by Anna Claire}. At first, neither one of them said anything about Santa, then it sort of clicked, I guess. Well, before they could go out front, we needed to get the video camera set up and I had to get Mallory's hair pulled back out of her face! We had put a dog gate up in the hallway to keep the girls and the dogs from rushing into the living room too early. They were so funny waiting at the gate for us to let them in.

Making their way over to their new toys, they were both absolutely speechless. I don't think they knew what to look at first.

I think because the doll house was the biggest gift, that's where they landed first. They just didn't know what to think of it.

After thoroughly inspecting the doll house, they moved on to explore the other toys, books, and games Santa brought...

The girls really understood more this year what Santa was all about, but I still don't think they really knew what to expect. The video of them coming around the corner and first seeing all their gifts is priceless, so I'll have to try to upload it.

And, just so you know, we made sure the girls also understood as best they could what Christmas is really all about. If you asked them, they could tell you that baby Jesus was born on Christmas day and slept in a manger, that Mary is his mommy and Joseph is his daddy, and that three wise men {Mallory sometimes gets confused and thinks there were only two} visited baby Jesus and brought him gold, frankincense, and myrrh {that's another video I need to share}. I think that's pretty good for two~and~a~half!