Merry and bright

Yes, I am aware that Christmas was nearly two weeks ago and people are probably so over seeing pictures of Christmas trees and presents and the like. But I was too busy playing over the holidays to post and I can't just leave a big, gaping Christmas hole in my blog, now can I? Plus, it was a wonderful holiday that deserves a little recognition. That said, please enjoy our recap of Christmas 2010!

We kicked off our Christmas Eve by taking a ride on the Polar Express, then came home to a yummy dinner and jumped right into our regular December 24th traditions. These included calling for our Elf, Pixie, who always leaves presents on our doorstep on Christmas Eve. The babies were enamored with their new PJs.

Then, we switched gears to the true meaning of Christmas--the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. As usual, we acted out the nativity "preschool style," then got a bit more serious to read Luke 2 and watch our favorite movie of the nativity.

Of course, we couldn't go to bed without prepping for Santa! We set out our stockings (and improvised a bit for Matt, who sadly doesn't have his own homemade stocking yet), a glass of milk and some cookies for Santa -- along with carrots for the reindeer, naturally -- and then the babies set up a welcoming committee for Mr. Claus in front of the fireplace.

Just a few hours later, the babies awakened to find candy canes under their pillows. This meant Santa had come! Too bad it was 4:45 A.M. when they made this discovery. All the kids sleep in the same room the night before Christmas, so we all woke up and tried to entertain the babies for as long as we could before waking up our parents.

We finally cracked at 5:30, which was much more reasonable. See, in our home, if a single present is opened when the sun is up then Christmas is obviously ruined, so it's important to get an early start. With mom and dad now awake, the kids ran down the stairs to find all sorts of treasures under the tree.

Let the unwrapping begin!

Gabey signed his own name on presents this year :-)

Please observe Nicole's wrapping of Christian's present below. Yes, she is a college graduate.

Spatulas! Just what mom always wanted.

'Twas the year of the coats.

A definite highlight of the morning were the "gifts" that Christian and I gave each other, consisting entirely of inside jokes. We had each other crying, we were laughing so hard.

Other highlights included the family's gifts from our parents. Rather than giving us a bunch of stuff this year, our  parents gave us memories. These included family season passes to Seven Peaks and Trafalga, a day of cross country skiing at Solider Hollow, a handful of new games for family game night, a classic popcorn popper and new movies for family movie nights, and this one, which Heidi opened below: 

Tickets to see the Broadway musical The Lion King in Las Vegas this month. Yeah, those all beat "stuff" any day! It's been so much fun to keep looking forward to new experiences together long after the excitement of opening presents had wound down. It was a wonderful Christmas, indeed!