'Tis the Season

Seeing as everyone else in the family has updated blogs, I had better do the same.
Christmas arrived early this year, with a gathering of the maternal clan a couple of days before the big man arrived. It was a lovely, relaxing dinner (at least for the guests. I am sure the hosts were a bit more frazzled!)
Then we were off down east to visit some people we had not seen in too long (6 months). Most of the time they were our granddaughters, but some of the time they were either lions or zebras. (This followed the "zoo" theme, a result of younger of the two wanting a "hippypotamus" from Santa. He happened to leave it under our tree, so we had to transport it to her house.)

Older granddaughter wanted to go outside, and following her cousin's lead, she tried to fit into Grandpa's shoes. Sorry, not yet. Keep growing!

As it was much milder where these two live than where we normally live, we were able to play outside, and to make sure the slide and swing still work. See later on for a short video of outside play.
This "little" dollhouse was one of the gifts the girls found on Christmas Day. It was bigger than they were! Aunties had sent little dolls for the house, not imagining how big it really was. Grandpa loved putting on all those teeny tiny shoes!
Everyne read to everyone else. Grandma read (she looks a little the worse for wear here)...
Grandpa read...
and Big Sister read to Little Sister.
The girls had a great game called "Don't Wake Up Daddy!". "Daddy" bolts upright in bed at unexpected moments. Older granddaughter loved it, but younger granddaughter wasn't quite so sure!
And now, two short videos. One is, as promised, the girls playing outside on their deck. After that, we present for your viewing pleasure, the singers and dancers of St. T.