Christmas came early!

As you may know by now, I'm a poor college student. Because my budget is limited I've had to get creative on what I give as Christmas presents. For my older nieces and nephews, a simple candy suffices, however I still like to do something special for the younger ones. Usually this includes some sort of experience instead of an actual gift to open.

For Chloe and Kelsea I did a sleepover with Aunt Melissa. We planned it so that it would be when Lisa was going to need to be at work anyway, and the girls and I lived it up.

Monday night we colored, played games (they kicked our butts at Disney Princess UNO), sang Christmas Carols, and had a short Family Home Evening lesson from Grandpa. We then started to head downstairs to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the cartoon version, which is the only one worth watching) as a family. Grandpa said he was tired so he was just going to stay upstairs. Kelsea was having none of that, and told Grandpa as much. Needless to say, Grandpa did come downstairs and join us. If he'd seen it before, he didn't remember it, so it was fun to see his reactions to the movie as much as Chloe & Kelsea. Grandma had bought a new story to read to the girls. Before bed I read them a few stories from their new Disney Princess Christmas Storybook. I had them staying in the guest room, so I needed to change the sheets. We were laughing so hard as they jumped in under every layer I attempted to place, and then even harder when said layer landed on top of them. Eventually we all settled down, and they went to sleep, and I got to go sleep in my own room. Such a lovely plus.

Tuesday we had a traditional Aunt Melissa breakfast a.k.a. Pancakes with food coloring. I've done pink, purple, and tie-dye, among others over the years. This time I split the batter in half and made green and red pancakes for us all. They continued to play with the balloons they'd brought the day before. Kelsea had the most fun stuffing them up her shirt, remember?

During the day they helped me, as we ran errands. As I explained to them, at our house we have a deal with Santa. Santa does the presents under the tree, while Grandpa (and I by extension) is responsible for the stocking. They had fun being sneaky little elves, picking out stocking stuffers, and eyeing anything pink, and anything to do with Disney Princesses or Barbies. We picked up our family Christmas Cards (which I'll post on Christmas), and got treats before finally making our way back to their house around 6 that evening.

Aunt Melissa was exhausted, but had a blast, and I think it was a present they will remember for years to come. These pictures I'm having printed for them, won't hurt either.