Oh What Fun: Christmas '12

I know I say this every single year, but I cannot believe Christmas has already come and gone.  It feels like I blinked and it happened!  I love the Christmas season - everyone (well, most everyone) is nicer and the decorations are wonderful and it is just an exciting time of year!  We had our normal gatherings with family and it was great!  Katie really got into Christmas this year...it makes it that much more fun to see everything through a child's eyes.  And then it was Jack's first Christmas - that makes is even more special too!

On Christmas Eve, Brad's mom, aunt, and uncle came over to visit and have dinner and exchange gifts!  Here is the tree with all of the goodies underneath!

Here is our family picture of the evening :)

And the kiddos - so fun!

Jack was so intrigued by the tree and ornaments and colorful tissue paper!

And a picture of the kiddos with Grandma!

Now he decided to look :) He was so excited that he was having trouble sitting up and smiling and trying to see everything, so we popped him into the Bumbo!

Here Jack is opening his first Christmas present ever!

And in true child fashion, Katie was more entertained by Jack's toys :) She still is...and she claims she is "showing him how they work" - ha!

Here's Jack playing with his toy!

Before getting ready for bed, we put the reindeer food out in the grass!  Here I am with my sweet girl before we did that.

About to dump it out!  We tried to get her to spread it out, but she just dumped it out instead...

Here is the pile of oats and glitter and sprinkles :)

Two cute kiddos in their Christmas jammies (that Alvin the Elf brought)!

And we forgot to put cookies and milk out for Santa, so I put it out - I didn't want Katie to get upset that Santa didn't get his standard goodies ;)

And....SANTA CAME!!!!

Christmas morning, we had to wake Katie up!  Here she is in Jack's room waiting while we changed his diaper and got him ready!

She headed downstairs and the first thing she played with was the Peppa Pig house!

And then it was on to stockings...here she is trying to figure out what all was in there.

Jack had a big time checking his toys out too!

And then Katie decided she wanted to try out the Strawberry Shortcake bicycle...and she did a great job!  She rode it through our kitchen and around the island!

And here they are playing with the toy table Jack got!  I love that they were playing together :)

And then we opened presents from eachother!

Here I am with  my cutie pies!

And here are my 3 favorites all together!

Then we got changed and loaded up the van to head to Cee Cee's house.  Katie was traveling in style, of course.

And a family picture on Christmas!

Here is Cee Cee with Jack - so cute!

Katie was taking picture after picture with her new camera...it was quite entertaining to go through her pics.  About 98% of them were a big blur...but it was neat to see things through her eyes with the ones that were actually in focus!

And here was the tree with all the goodies under it at my mom's!  We must have all been good this year!

Katie actually smiling for me :)  She had that fake smile going full force this year!

And she wanted a picture with the presents!  Maybe I just need to say I am also going to take one with her camera to make her cooperate!

All the stockings...

And a picture of me and Brad!

I sure do love these two so much...and they looked so precious in their matching outfits!  I cannot believe we lasted the whole day without a stain on either one!

Another collection of pictures of them...so precious.

Jack really liked his cards...I love that it looks like he is really reading this one!  Of course he ended up putting it in his mouth after a few minutes, but he really did love looking at it.

This pretty much sums it all up...a blur of tissue paper and bag and wrapping paper.

Katie got a Barbie and pink Volkswagen Beetle from my mom...she LOVES it!  Whenever we see a real beetle, she always says she wants a pink one "when she gets big", so this was perfect!

And because I can embarrass him, here is my brother wearing the big shower cap my aunt got for Christmas - HAHA!! You're welcome, Will :)

And after presents, Brad always naps - this year, he had a little partner in crime!

And after we ate, we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus - my mom made this cake so that we could remember the real reason to celebrate Christmas.  I love that Katie really got into this too!

Next, we headed to my aunt and uncle's house on my dad's side.  We did our traditional Bible reading and ate and then ripped into some presents!  Here are Katie and Jack with my grandparents.  What a special picture!

And someone mentioned the golf cart, so of course Katie wanted to ride.  It was FREEZING out there, but we had fun exploring the golf course!

And after all of the excitement, this is how I found Jack...snoozing with his arm up over his eyes.  Priceless.  And pretty much sums up how we all felt I think!

After we got home and unloaded and took a breath, we played with toys for a while!  Jack absolutely loves his doggy rocker!

And a few last pictures from Christmas...so sweet!

And of course Sadie was right in the middle of it all!  I think Jack was riding her like a horse here :)

And then Katie wanted in on the Sadie snuggles...look at Sadie's expression - ha!

And this was the last shot before bedtime...Katie was exhausted and Jack had clearly had enough too!

I also wanted to highlight just a few of the gifts I got...the picture on the left is all of the things I got with dots! The softest robe EVER from my grandparents, cute rain shoes from my grandmother, reusable snack/sandwich bags, washii tape, packing tape, and a reusable shopping bag!  They clearly know of my love for anything dots :)  And Santa brought me this ornament....HA!!! Pretty appropriate, right??

What a fantastic couple of days.  I love seeing family and taking time to visit with everybody.  And finding just the right gift for someone is a great feeling too! I think Katie is already counting down until Christmas next year!  Stay tuned for posts on what our elf was up to this year, all of the crafts I got into, the kids pic with Santa (a little late - oops!), and a few more!