More Christmas Day

I found more pictures!  We'll just call this extreme present unwrapping and toy playing.  Because that's what we did the whole.day.long.

 Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was amazing this year despite all of my holiday Scrooginess and waking up that morning with the flu.  I tired my hardest to pull it together all season long and the flu was just the final touch to a melancholy season.  I thought I pulled it together as best I could.  The kids had a wonderful day...they were in their pajamas the whole day long.   I served a nice breakfast and Steve stepped in a made a great dinner.  Most importantly, we were a family and we soaked up the traditions we have created for 'The Littles'.

Our tree, in the wee small hours of the morning after Santa left.

 Christmas morning.  This picture reminds me of how much I absolutely love our house.

 Coming down the stairs in our pj's.

 'The Boy' belined to his side and went straight for his stocking.

 He knew it was full of goodies.

 'Munchkin' kind of got the idea and headed over to the pink side.

 But, then she saw that Santa hadn't eaten all of the treats we had left for him so she decided to help him out.

She took her treats back to her new chair.  Santa did a good job...she just loves little chairs.

 We read a letter Santa had written us and then started to open gifts.

 He loved his new superheros...

 And Cars 2.

 She opened up her Mrs. Potatohead and then wore her glasses for a while...

 ...even while opening her presents.

 'The Hubs' sporting his new polarized sunglasses...

...and checking out the details on his deep sea fishing trip.

 I always get tricked.  'The Hubs' has been wrapping my presents in strange boxes since we were dating.  This Diet Coke box contain a pair of maternity yoga pants I had asked for.

'The Boy' helped 'Munchkin' open her Disney Princess kitchen.  A gift they both loved.

Very excited for new Hot Wheels tracks.

Feeding her new baby...

 ...and herself.

 A few hours later, Gigi, Pop and Uncle Michael came over for brunch.  Note: 'The Boy's' crafty centerpiece.

We ate a very yummy breakfast before opening more gifts.  It seriously takes us so long to get through them all.  I can't even imagine what it is like for bigger families.  We enjoyed our family and watching 'The Littles' play with their new toys in their pj's.  Seriously, they wore them to dinner.   Pop made us a lovely dinner but I stopped taking pictures after brunch because I was just feeling worse.

This is the aftermath.  I was a bit late in taking the picture this year.  'The Hubs' had already started cleaning a bit. 

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year (despite the bah humbugs) and we're looking forward to a very happy New Year.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve always has had a habit of lasting all day long for us.  The night before, we had a gift exchange with 'The Hubs' family and most of the kids spent the night at Mimi and Papa's.  It was a nice break for us but, we had some over tired, cranky kids on our hands the next day.  We started the celebrating at Gigi and Pop's for lunch and opening a few presents for 'The Littles'.  'Munchkin' also took her celebratory 3 hour afternoon nap.

My Mom's tree.

 'The Boy' opened a few new boxes of Lego's (a huge hit) and he and 'The Hubs' and Pop spent the rest of the afternoon assembling.

 So surprised with the finished product.

 Uncle Michael took his celebratory afternoon nap, too.

 'Munchkin' woke up and took a ride on the Pop roller coaster before getting dressed in her Christmas best.  We love that she closes her eyes for an even bigger thrill.  She is definitely our roller coaster girl.



 Me and our baby boy @ 30 weeks.  I still cannot believe how fast this pregnancy is going!

We tried about 100 different takes and this was the best we could do for a family photo.

That night, we headed to a Christmas party with 'The Hubs' extended family.  It is always so nice to see his family all together as it happens only twice a year.  We visited and ate delicious food and exchanged gifts among the little cousins.  All of the little kids were so tired, some even asking if they could go home to sleep.

 'The Boy' fell asleep on the car ride over and didn't wake up until five minutes before we left.  Such a party pooper!

 'Munchkin' fell asleep on the way home so 'The Boy' had the very important job of getting ready for Santa's visit.

 He signed his own name this year!

 Treats for Santa...and a book.  'The Boy' thought he might enjoy something to read while he enjoyed his snack.

 We ended the night with a reading of The Night Before Christmas.  I love how our little family is creating our own holiday traditions.  Then we were off to bed...

Xmas happenings

December was such a busy month, filled with celebrations, crafts and spending time with our family.  I usually love the holidays and jam pack them with as many activities that I can but, this year I felt kind of Scroogey.  It was hard to keep up with my growing belly and decreasing energy level.  I put off so many things to the last minute which is so unlike me but, in the end, it appears that I pulled it off.

My mom and I did it again.  Another beautiful table at the Cornerstone Church Women's Ministry Christmas Brunch.  It was a lot of hard work and procrastination on my part.  It turned out to be great in the end.

We were so lucky to be able to adopt 'Buddy the Elf' this year.  The kids loved waking up in the morning to find where he was hiding out that day.  We must have watched 'The Elf on the Shelf' movie a hundred times.  The kids couldn't get enough of it!

Mimi came over to the house to do a craft with 'The Littles' for Papa's Christmas gift.  All of the grand kids (13 in total) put their hand prints on an apron for him.  He loved it!

Daddy and 'Munchkin' danced the night away to some holiday music one night.  Melted my heart.

I got to attend 'The Boy's' preschool Christmas party.  The kids were so sugared up but he had the best time and was so excited to give Ms Veronica and Ms Sonia B their gifts.

'Munchkin' enjoyed the party (and several cookies) too.

We made it to Disneyland in the nick of time (just before our passes were blacked out).  I can't believe how big 'The Boy' is getting.  He wore his 3D glasses for the entire show of A Bug's Life.  This is huge for him.

I love to see It's a Small World all decked out.  It was such a busy day and we were so lucky to see the Christmas parade form the Small World line.  They stopped the line from moving and we had a front row view.

'Munchkin' says it was a good Disney day.  Especially once she got her hands on the lollipop.

'The Hubs' and 'The Boy' got down to the serious business of holiday crafting.

I helped 'The Boy' with the gingerbread house.  Not my most favorite activity but it brought him so much joy...

...until it all came crashing down a few hours later.

We took 'The Littles' to the grocery store for our Christmas dinner haul.  They slept the whole time.  I don't think we will likely ever see this again.

After the longest wait ever, we finally got our Christmas cards from Shutterfly.  Too bad half of them belonged to this lovely family.  Merry Christmas, Snyder's.

Walgreen's to the rescue.  They had our new Christmas cards ready in an hour and I spent the whole night frantically addressing cards so they would get out in time.

Uncle Michael arrived in town and bravely constructed a new gingerbread house with 'The Boy'.  This time it was a success.

We baked cookies.  I didn't have the energy to make dozens and dozens of different kinds of cookies this year so we just stuck to sugar cookies for 'The Littles' to decorate.

'The Boy' was a Chargers fan for half of an afternoon until I told him to knock it off or he'd break his Daddy's heart.  We're Giants fans, kid!

Looking back, as Scroogey as I felt, we had a great run of celebrating Christmas.  Next year, I'll kick it back up a notch.