Overheard in our house

If you were a mouse in our house, you might have overheard some of the following:

• Julia:  "Mom, I made you this Menorah.  I made it as a surprise for you and it's very special.  I made it for you because I knew you always wanted a Menorah."  Me:  "Thanks - it's the best Menorah I've ever seen!"  What I didn't say was that we are Catholic so I never even thought about getting a Menorah, but if she made one special for me because she knew I always wanted one then it's my most favorite Menorah of all time!  And she was so observant to realize that is the one decoration that doesn't show up in our house at Christmas time.  
• Julia:  "When Santa brings my coach..."  Me:  "How do you know Santa is going to bring the Coach?"  Julia:  "Because I already put my order in with him.  Remember my note?  It had the 3 things I wanted on it."  Oh, to be so sure of yourself!
• Julia:  "Emma, that is NOT nice" sob, sob, loud sob.  Me:  "That's right Emma, Santa is watching you and you don't want to get on his naughty list."  Emma:  hysterical laughter, more hysterical laughter, falling over from laughing and laughing some more.  Heard right after Emma grabbed Julia's hair and pulled it during a game of Crazy Eights.  I don't think Emma did it on purpose, but she sure does love to watch others cry and thinks it's the funniest thing ever!  It does not endear her to the person crying, however ;-)
• Julia, Chris and Emma munching on Christmas cookies.  Emma crying where hers is gone and demanding another.  Chris yelling at Finnegan to stop licking Emma to get all her crumbs.  Julia and Chris just sneak into the kitchen and take more and I wonder why it's taking me so long to build up a stash of Christmas cookies this year.

Lots of fun happening around our house this time of year.  Both girls are now done school until next year so we have lots of plans to sleep late, hang out with friends, and take some trips to the local museums.

Christmas from years past.  How is time going by so quickly?  My babies are growing into lovely little girls.