christmastime 2011

We had such a great Christmas this year! I think one reason I loved it so much was because we didn't travel at all, which made it so much more relaxing! I do love traveling and visiting family, but it can definitely be exhausting, too. I didn't get out my camera as much as I would have liked (and one time I did, the battery was dead - of course!) but I did manage to snap a few pics of the kids enjoying the Christmas festivities!

We had our big Christmas meal with my family on Christmas Eve. We wanted to have a few treats to snack on throughout the day, so I made cheese wafers (round cheese straws) and pretzel-hug sandwiches. Here are the boys on Christmas Eve eve, making the pretzels. They were such a big help! They unwrapped the entire bag of hugs, and stuck a hug on top of each of the pretzels. I love it when kids think they are just having fun, when in reality they are helping out so much!

Finally, Christmas morning! On a normal day, the boys know they can't come out of their room until 7am. We heard the boys talking and getting excited around 6:45. David thought it would be fun to go ahead and just let them come out and go downstairs to start the Christmas morning fun. In my half-asleep state, I agreed. So we (I) dragged ourselves out of bed, went and got the boys, and waited at the bottom of the stairs to take the Christmas morning pictures.

Anderson looks a little out of sorts!

Stockings! Everything in the boys' stocking is from Santa. (Evelyn got diapers in hers!) If the boys had asked Santa for something big (that wouldn't fit in a stocking), we'd just put it out next to the stockings or by the tree, but there were no big gifts this year. Santa even put stuff in MY stocking, which was so nice because David and I agreed that Santa didn't need to put anything in our stockings. Sneaky, sneaky. I got some candy and a book I have been wanting for so long, Loving the Little Years by Rachel Jankovic. I'll let you know how I like it!

We were laughing so much at Anderson... every single thing he pulled out of his stocking made him gasp.

I had heard Camden mention a few times over the last few months that he really wished he had a piggy bank. We've had several in the past, but they were either too baby-ish or have been broken. We saw this and knew he'd love it. It's unbreakable (plastic) and it will grow with him! It also counts the coins as you put them in, so it keeps track of how much is in the jar. We had a jar of loose change that we transferred to this jar, and we were so surprised to see that we had $25 dollars worth of coins just hanging out in the house!

Lightning McQueen water bottle!

Camden loves to read... I can't believe I bought him a real chapter book for Christmas. Stop growing up, kid.

Build-and-paint fire truck, train, and plane.

Camden was so excited about this gift - his very own easel with canvases to paint. He LOVES art, so I knew he'd love this.

Evie was asleep during the present-opening on Christmas morning, so I didn't get a picture of her. I did have to include a picture of her in this post, so here she is with my daddy (her Opa) at their house on Christmas Eve.

One last funny story to include... our Christmas tree fell over and broke on Christmas morning! Thankfully it was after we had opened all our gifts. It actually happened when we were getting ready to walk out the door - so no one was standing near it when it happened. David and I got that tree our first year of marriage (6ft, non-lit), so it has definitely lived a good, long life. Sooo, since we were definitely going to need a new one next year, I went out the morning after Christmas and found a 7ft. pre-lit for $44! Can't wait to put it up next year!!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! Can't believe it's already January! 2012!