Our Christmases

After we open presents on Christmas morning,
we head over to my parents' house.
We eat lunch and then we let the kids open their presents.
Then my mom and dad open their presents.
Then the adults have a funny white elephant gift exchange.
Now, I have eight siblings.
They all have spouses (fiancees) & children.
So you can imagine how many people are there.
Obviously with that many people, not everyone can come every year.
This year EVERYBODY was there!!! =)
So this is just one picture that pretty much sums up what my parents' house looks like on Christmas:

We took a family picture......outside.

It's the only place all of us would fit!

It's loud & crowded, and I wouldn't want it any other way. =)

On Sunday, we headed over to the Logan side of our family!

Sheril (my mother-in-law) got all of the grandkids together and taught them a song to sing for all of the adults!

It was very cute.

I love how intent these two are to get the actions right.

Then it is present time!

After all of the presents were unwrapped, we took a family picture too!

We are so lucky that we get to spend Christmas with all of our families.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Morning

I used to think I got more excited about Christmas morning than the kids did.
I love seeing the kids' faces and how excited they get to see what Santa brought, and can't wait for them to wake up.
That's what I thought......
until Zach came bouncing (literally) into our bed at 6:30 Saturday morning talking a mile a minute.
He might have been a tad more excited than me at that point. =)

We woke Lily & Riley up.
After trying to talk Zach into waiting a little bit....unsuccessfully.
But Lily & Riley did not mind getting up to see their presents.
Imagine that!

After the kids played with their Santa presents for awhile, we opened presents from each other.

and then played with those toys....

We had a great Christmas morning.

The kids all got lots of things they wanted.

Jeff & the kids got me an espresso maker. (yeah!!!)

The kids were excited to give Jeff his new Chiefs slippers.

(He got other things, they just don't care about jeans and khaki pants.)

There were no fights and no melt downs.

I like that kind of morning. =)

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve is pretty low-key.
Which is a good thing, because usually the next few days are a rush of go, go, go.
We just have a few traditions.
One is to get all dressed up and take individual and family pictures in front of the tree before Christmas Eve mass.

After mass, we come home and I slave over a home cooked meal.

Just kidding!

We pick up dinner.

That's MY present. ;-)

The kids usually watch a Christmas movie and then they each choose a cookie to leave for Santa.

We always leave hot cocoa too.

This year, Zach wrote a letter to Santa:

He was very excited the next morning, when Santa wrote on the back that he was thankful for the cookies and hot cocoa.


Then Jeff reads The Night Before Christmas.

After putting kids to bed (several times for one 8 year old.....), our Christmas Eve rituals are over.

At least for the kids.

Jeff & I usually have a glass of wine and sit on the couch enjoying the silence. ;-)

Merry Christmas!

We wish you a very blessed Christmas!

Decorating The Tree

Sunday night we decorated our tree that we have in the family room.
This tree is decorated with ornaments that are mine from my childhood, and ones that we have collected since we have been married.
We also have added ornaments that the kids received when they had their first Christmas and ones that they have received or made over the years.
In addition to all of those, each year, the kids get to pick out a new ornament.

In last few years, Zach has begun to help Jeff put the tree up.
It is so fun to watch them work together on this project. =)

Lily got to add the angel to the tree this year!
(with daddy's help of course)

The kids like to add their new ornaments to the tree first.

Zach picked out a shiny red present as his ornament.

Lily had been eyeing this cute penguin for weeks.

I am SO glad they had one left when we went to get ornaments!!

Riley picked out an ornament that had a cute scene from the movie Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

It is so fun to watch them get excited over their ornaments.

They have baby ones, ones with their names on them, handmade ones, cars, care bears, footballs, and anything else you can imagine.

It makes our tree unique to us as a family.

And I love that.