Christmas!!

It's been a great few days! Christmas was great!! My kids are at such great ages for enjoying Christmas - it was so fun! Christmas Eve Paul worked in the morning and we hung out and prepped food for the evening. We traditionally all get new Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve. I had told the kids in the morning that we could open 1 gift when Daddy got home from work. They kept wondering which one they could open (again see my early post about how they remember what they want to remember - neither of my older girls could remember that they get jammies every Christmas Eve). They were just super excited to open a gift and seemed excited about getting the pajamas even though jammies weren't on any list. About 3 seconds after they opened the gift they had changed out of their Christmas outfits and into the pajamas! A highlight of the day was the Santa tracking. Emma was obsessed with noradsanta.com.

We met Paul's family at church for Christmas Eve service and they came back to our house for dinner and to celebrate with us. We had a good meal and a great time opening gifts. The girls were all super exited with all they got - lots of arts & crafts kits, new dolls and some other toys. Jacob had a big time climbing on the boxes and playing with the wrapping paper! We finally got the kids to bed about 9.

Thankfully it was dark & rainy Christmas morning so I think that helped the kids sleep a little later. Lily got up about 7 but the rest of them not until almost 8! They kept asking "Did Santa come? Did Santa come?" Indeed he had! Everyone seemed excited about what they got. We opened our stockings then I (the present nazi) made everyone wait until after breakfast to open the family gifts. We opened more gifts and all the kids played with their new stuff. My dad and his wife stopped by for a quick visit and then we got ready for my mom and her family.

Gagi and Grampy arrived in the afternoon and then my aunt and cousins arrived shortly after. More present opening - American Girl dolls! Bitty Baby! Clothes! The excitement was too much! Lily kept saying "I got a lot of stuff". No joke! We had a nice meal and enjoyed just hanging out and playing with the new stuff.

All in all a great holiday. It was really all about the kids this year. They were super cute and their excitement was certainly contagious. Thankfully they got enough new things that they ought not be bored until they go back to school at least (7 more days!). Now to find places to put this stuff and see what stuff we might want to pass on....

Hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas!!!

PS - I might add pictures later but I posted a bunch of facebook....