Last Friday night, when I put all five girls –

MacKenzie, Angelina, Aviean, Juliana and Olivia

– down to sleep, they thought it was a regular Friday night.

Little did they know that,

when they woke up the next morning,

Christmas would be waiting in the kitchen.

MacKenzie’s response was my favorite:

“Did we sleep six months?”

I got them little gifts, mainly things I needed for them here.

Stuffed animals for the little girls to sleep with when they spend the night,

workbooks and flash cards for everyone.

I hadn’t been feeling good,

so the idea of dragging out all of my Christmas decorations made me shiver.

Instead, I got out the tree and decided that the ornaments would be little gifts.

Flash cards, for example.  Not your typical gift,

but, by goodness, these girls are going to learn while they’re at my house.

Instead of garland, I hung candy necklaces on the branches.

I added some Pop Rocks, mainly because I loved them as a child.

There were even some elephant puppets peeking out, too!

And, of course, a few ring pops balanced on the branches.

I mean, every girl needs a little bling, bling you know.

I had breakfast on the table,

miniature cinnamon rolls and strawberries…

with some chocolate chip waffles…

and little biscuits in cupcake holders.

The girls were surprised, giddy and thrilled.

Christmas in July!

Can you imagine?

Once everyone had their food,

it was time for a Christmas morning picnic on the kitchen floor.

In other words, I don’t have enough chairs at my kitchen table

to feed all of them at once, so I had to get creative.

After we ate breakfast, each girl got to open one gift.

And then it was time to make gingerbread houses!

Once we had finished that messy little task,

I took the girls to the front porch for a little outside fun.

Since we couldn’t exactly throw snowballs in July,

we threw the next best thing: water balloons!

Once we had finished with our water balloons,

we had some frozen lemonade out of mason jars.

Frozen because it was “Christmas;” lemonade because it was July.

And then each girl got a little ice cream pail of her own,

with candy canes instead of spoons!

Candy canes because it was “Christmas;” ice cream because it was July.

After our fun on the porch,

I made all five of them hop in the tub so I could get them clean.

Once we were dry and dressed,

it was time to talk about the meaning of Christmas

and then open a few more gifts, too.

I think I enjoyed myself as much as the girls did,

even though it took me until 2 a.m. to get everything set-up after they had fallen asleep.

And, well, there was the mess after they all left, too.

Worth every last dirty dish to see a child –

or five!

– on “Christmas” morning.