Merry Christmas!!!

The kids woke up to a magical Christmas morning - They were so excited to see what Santa had left for them under the tree. At about 8:30 Noah woke up and peeked into the living room to see the presents. I picked up our still deeply sleeping little girl and coaxed her to wake up and see what she had gotten for Christmas! They tiptoed in and checked out all the Santa gifts, made sure Santa ate his cookies and drank his milk and then ripped into the wrapped packages and their stockings as well. Noah was thrilled to find Nerf guns, Batman wings and gadgets, and more legos. Rachel found a Tinkerbelle outfit & slippers, Disney Barbies, baby doll equipment and a doll or two. They were both so happy and excited and smiling. It's something you never forget and never want to. =)






















After the kids finished up opening all their presents and a good breakfast with Grammy we headed over to Mom's house to start the festivities all over with Amie and Chris's families, Uncle Brian and Mom. It was great. We haven't spent a Christmas in Tennessee in about 10 years. The kids have never gotten to share the holidays with all of their extended family and it was truely a great thing to be able to spend it with everyone - certainly that was a gift in itself. Once everyone was there the kids were all excited to open presents and we didn't torture them with waiting. It was cute to watch them all rip into the packages. You have to love the oohs and awes - the thrills and squeals of Christmas with kids. We all enjoyed each other's company, good food, football (of course), a football toss, some soccer and snuggling up with some very, very tired kids. It was a great holiday and I am so thankful to have been there to spend it with both my and Doug's family.

The Night Before Christmas...

We spent Christmas Eve at Doug's parents house this year. They celebrate on Christmas Eve and the kids were soooo excited that they were finally going to get to open some presents. It was cute to watch them all together. They would linger near the presents asking when, when? After dinner they finally got to rip into their gifts. It was so fun to watch their faces light up as they opened the presents and showed us what they got. There were legos, gi joes, princess and barbie things, nerf guns and all kinds of neat gifts. After all the festivities died down we got the kids ready for bed, watched The Christmas Story, sprinkled the reindeer food on the grass outside and set cookies and milk out for Santa. I snuggled up in bed with them and read How the Grinch Stole Christmas, a Christmas Mouse story and told them the story of the First Christmas. It wasn't long until they were dreaming after such an exciting evening.

Making Christmas Cookies

It's so much fun for me to watch these guys have fun doing things like making cookies. They were so excited to get started and could barely wait for each pan to cool to put the new cookies they had cut on. They cut out all the dough, watched a Christmas special between the cooling and the decorating and then went to town with icing and sprinkles. They were so covered in flour and icing by the end of the night - Rachel kept saying they were all snowy, and "Why, Mom, are you not all snowy too?". It was funny. After they were all done with the cookies (after eating a few too!) while I was cleaning up, Rachel asked Noah to read her The Night Before Christmas. It was one of those moments you just want to keep forever - Of course, Noah can't quite read the book himself yet, but he sure did try and told her the story as best he could. It was so cute. We finished the night off with that book, the First Christmas Story and several others. It was a really nice night. =)