Christmas Day

Christmas on a Sunday poses some logistical issues when you have excited little kids, but all in all I found it a bonus to get to worship on the day we have set aside to celebrate Christ's birth. The pictures are pretty self-explanatory, but I'll caption a few.

 

This tent was from Ikea and proved to be the biggest hit of the morning and the days since.  At $20 I consider it the bargain gift of the year seeing as they've already spent hours playing with it.

 

Checking out the stockings

I love Avvie's just-woken-up look in the top picture and mouth full of dark chocolate in the bottom picture (a stocking treat).  Maddie was up a little before Avvie, but it was a reasonable 7:30 or so.  We let her look in her stocking to stave her off while Avvie slept, but after awhile we caved and let her wake up Avonlea.

 

 

They each got to open a couple gifts before church.

Maddie asked for only two things (and had the same requests for months): ballet slippers and a jack in the box.  I felt that these traditional gifts were pretty funny for her to request, but I was afraid they wouldn't meet her expectations.  But, she was thrilled with the jack in the box Nonna got her and the slippers we got her (which we let her wear to church after some begging).

 

Charles Wallace looks grumpy, but he was actually pretty happy having just received his Christmas breakfast of Fancy Feast which is a treat for a cat who only gets dry food generally.

We headed off to church.  I failed to get a single picture of the girls in their Christmas dresses.  But, seeing as their Christmas dresses will continue to be worn all winter, I'm sure they'll be photographed at some point!  (Plus, while they were cute, they weren't anything super special or Christmasy.  Maddie's was dirt cheap at a consigment shop actually and her sweater was purchased by Beth at a garage sale.)  Jessie snapped a few iPhone pictures.

 

 

Heading back home to tackle the presents!

After present opening I dashed over to my parents to snag some Christmas Eve leftovers to hold us over until our roast garlic chicken was ready for dinner.  (It was so good, but the house stunk of garlic and roast vegetables--including parsnips in honor of my British husband, kids and mother-in-law eating the meal.  It smells good while cooking, but not so good when you wake up to it the next day.)  I'm wearing a super cozy robe that my parents gave me.  I eyed it at Anthro once with my mom but deemed it too much of a splurge.  I've said I plan to wear it to preschool drop-off or morning bagel pick-up, but my sisters gave highly disapproving looks.  We'll see.

It's become a bit of a tradition for us to do a gingerbread house on Christmas day.  I don't care for gingerbread so we always get a kit since I have never mastered making it (or even tried).  This kit came with icing, but I should should have made my own royal icing because this icing never hardened properly and the house had to be held up by scaffolding constructed of popsicle sticks and gumdrops.  We still haven't finished decorating it, maybe tomorrow...

 

The girls were excited to put on their new princess and Minnie pjs from Uncle Justin and Aunt Elisabeth at bedtime that night.

 

 

Maddie received a kid's digital camera and while she seemed to like it, Avonlea has been more taken with it. Her composition could use some work...after they've used it a few weeks p'haps I'll do a post of the pictures they took.

It was a great Christmas.  And even though our secular Christmas is over, we're still savoring the celebration of our religious Christmas.  Craig had another great sermon that morning which I've already found is impacting my view of waiting in a couple areas of my life.  I highly suggest you listen to it (here).  Maddie is already talking about what she wants to leave for Santa next year (coffee instead of milk--she sees Andy use his Keurig a lot!) and what presents she might ask for on her list.  She seems like she's enjoying just talking about it and "planning" for next year.  I only hope she can take this feeling of excitement and anticipation for Santa and earthly gifts and apply it in a magnified and sanctified way to her Savior and his good and perfect gifts!

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.