Merry Christmas (Eve)

Merry Christmas!  It may seem a few days late to wish you a merry Christmas, but I don't think that celebrating the birth of our Savior ever goes out of style.  We had a lovely weekend of celebrating and we're still trying to enjoy "both" Christmases by continuing to reflect on Christ's birth and keep up the Christmas cheer and treats.

On Christmas Eve we had our traditional party with my mom's side of the family (plus some extra family and friends).  I didn't take all that many pictures because I wanted to enjoy seeing everyone through my eyes and not my lens, but here is what I have.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beth made the girls these adorable terry cloth robes.  She made us other great gifts, too, so I will try and do a post this week highlighting them because they're too special to not share.

My parents got the kids these massive bean bag chairs.  We found them online at PB Kids and when my mom went to pick them up she was totally unprepared for how large they are.  I think they'll break in a bit, but regardless the kids love them and I think a lot of movies will be watched  and books read with the kids (or maybe me since they're so big!) curled up on them.

 

New baby doll (our first boy, or I assume based on the blue, nothing else to suggest gender!), new sled, new playfood (made by Aunt Beth)

The kids kept falling/jumping/rolling off the bean bags.  Here is an action shot of Aunt Jessie catching a falling Madeleine.

Yes, that's rock and roll Elmo (not sure if that's his official name).  My dad surprised the kids with him and I've got to say he's pretty entertaining.

Indoor sled rides

This series of pictures is the kids checking the NORAD Santa tracker website.  (For those of you not in the know, this is the website that the North American Aerospace Defense Command sets up to let kids track Santa across the world.  It's a lot of fun and apparently it's been going on for years, previously via only a call center. I read about how it started and I think it's pretty fun that an otherwise serious agency does this silly and cute project.)  Maddie and Nate were old enough to understand it a bit and were excited.  Really excited.  They were jumping, screaming and Nate even made up a little song.  And of course Avvie got caught up in it and started chanting "Santa" (when she wasn't shoving stolen candy canes in her mouth). Given how much I played Santa down, I sure have kids who are taken with the myth and the man (as long as he's not in person)!  (And I'm cool with that, I just didn't want to go overboard.  Turns out I had not choice.)  They were watching videos of Santa taken by soldiers and cameras watching the sky (for him or missiles, I'm not sure!) and also seeing on the map where he was.  He was getting close!

 

 

 

 

Milk and cookies waiting for Santa along with reindeer food outside (Maddie made it at school--yet again I was foiled in trying to minimize the Santa obsession :)

 I guess I did take a lot of pictures (with some help from Jessie).  Between the length of this post and the fact that Blogger is being a pain about uploading pictures, I'll save our Christmas day post for tomorrow.