Ho ho ho: Christmas 2011!!!

Hey hey hey!  Only 2 months late!  

With an almost 3 year old and a 1.5 year old there's a lot of magic to be had around Christmas time.  A lot of things to do, places to go, people to see, but all surrounded by magic and holiday spirit.  

We'll start with pictures.  Kayla and Savannah - in case you haven't already guessed - are BFFs! And Kim and I love to dress them up they love to dress up!  So, we got them some super cute matching outfits and stuck Tyler in a handsome vest and dragged them to Picture People.  I meant to get some of just my 2, of course, but by the time we were done getting individuals and groups the kids were over it so it didn't happen.  But we have lots anyway.  Love Christmas pictures!!!

Next up was pictures with Santa.  I knew Tyler was going to flip out - he flips out when anyone holds him besides me so it was bound to happen with Santa.  Ha ha.  So, on the count of 3 there he went.  The photographer said "you just want to buy the one with the girl smiling right?"  It was a cute picture but, no.  I want this little gem that includes both kids and captures this stage in Tyler's life.  Ha ha.

As a bonus, dad and Chris decided to plan their trip around Christmas so we were able to spend the holiday with them. It is so  nice to have family here for holidays.  And it's doubly nice when those people are handy and fix your stove and help you assemble toys.  Ha ha.

We ended up doing our dinner on Christmas Eve because they had to leave early afternoon on Christmas Day and I didn't want to spend the day cooking.  Chris and I threw together a ham, some veggies, and stuffing and called it a day.  For dessert... 

We made delicious and fun sugar cookies for Santa.  

Kayla made sure we spelled out all our names - here's Grandma with his set of letters

A couple weeks before we went to Color Me Mine and made a plate for Santa's cookies.  She painted it and did her handprint then I added the words and the dots.  Next year I'll have them make a plate for the carrots for the reindeer and a mug for the milk.

Alright, so, now we've moved on to the decorating of the cookies.  I let Kayla frost and sprinkle the ones for Santa.  I did a few myself for Santa's helpers.  :-)  Lord knows we had enough cookies!

All ready!  I hope Santa brought his appetite!

Now it was time to start getting some of the presents put together.  It was definitely Santa's workshop in this place!

I think it was Christmas for 16 kids in our house!  But with 2 kids, and several families contributing, it adds up.  Next year I might have to limit everyone to 2 presents per kid.  :-)

What Santa saw when he walked in.  I took a million pictures trying to get a really pretty shot with twinkling lights.

We let dad and Chris sleep in our bed so they were here when the kids woke up in the morning.  So, Kayla and I slept on an air mattress in her room.  This was her on Christmas Eve... with visions of, probably donuts and chocolate, dancing in her head.  Ha ha.  It was an interesting night - she ended up on top of me several times but we managed.  In the morning I brought up some milk and a chocolate muffin that we shared in bed waiting until it was a decent time to wake up.  I think we made it to about 6:30 when Tyler woke up.  We headed downstairs and Tyler was oblivious and Kayla was overwhelmed.  She didn't scream or go tearing through the presents.  She noticed somethings, missed others.  But she was excited and was ready to start opening presents.

We got Tyler all set up with a present with Chris

And Kayla made her way quickly to the dress up clothes.  She wanted to look at and play with everything.  We had to keep encouraging her to open more presents.  I think it took something like 3 hours to get through everything.  3 hours!!!

Tyler was happy to see all his trains and cars.  Kept him pretty occupied.

This was her second dressup outfit - a mermaid.  She was trying to figure out who this kid was in the ornament she got.  Ha ha.

The only thing Kayla asked for from Santa was Pinkalicious.  Santa when one further and also got her Goldilicious, and Purplicious.  (As a note: she didn't read pinkalicious again for a while - she read the heck out of these two though.)

Like I said ... trains and other vehicles.

Time to say goodbye.  :-(  Kayla and Tyler seriously loved Grandpa and Granny Chris.  Tyler loved that Grandpa played cars with him and Kayla was so happy to make cookies with Chris and, as usual, show off in front of "new" people.  

 From our first Christmas until Kayla was born Eric and I took pictures in front of the tree.  Kayla's first Christmas - I actually have no idea if we have a picture of the 3 of us in front of a tree.  I know her 2nd year, Tyler's 1st, we don't because we didn't have a tree.  So, I wanted to try it this year.  And I got one cute one I think, but I liked this one, of them checking out the tree instead of posing in front of it.  So, we'll put it in a frame and hang it up on the tree next year.  Eventually, these will be the only ornaments on the tree.  Ha ha.  Which, you know what, would be okay.  Those are our memories, our family, our priorities.  Why not cover the tree with them.  :-)

So, that was our Christmas Eve/Morning.  Oh, I almost forgot!  I set up the camera and got a couple pictures of Santa delivering our presents!

Had to check his list, twice, to be sure the kids were on it.  It's safe to say they were on the nice list.  :-)

So, Merry Christmas, 2 months late.  And, thank you to everyone who sent gifts and/or money.  It made for a memorable and enjoyable Christmas.