Our Very Merry Christmas

We did have a great Christmas and enjoyed ourselves a lot. I was nervous about being on our own and a tad bit lonely leading up to it but I actually thought it was great! It was relaxed and peaceful. It was wonderful to be with my little family.

We kicked off the festivities on Christmas Eve with making a homemade (be impressed) gingerbread house. We won't be winning any decorating contests anytime soon but the kids sure loved it. They stuck candy on occasionally while alternatively shoving candy in their mouths as fast as they could. Christmas fun!

(Candy corn? Raisenettes? Tom let the kids pick the candy)

Then we read the Nativity story in Luke 2 while the kids acted out the parts. Sweet Samantha took in seriously. Tommy was way more concerned that we didn't put the blanket on his head because it was "ouchy" I was a shepherd and Tom was a Wise Man but you won't be seeing pictures of that.

Mary and Joseph

Our Christmas Angel.

And then we got the traditional Christmas PJ's. Thanks to Grandma Marti for supplying them this year. Yay for the Disney Store! :)

And then Christmas morning!! I am so sad I forgot to take a picture of the unwrapped room on Christmas Eve. I really meant to, nothing says "anticipation" quite like that. I guess next year. It was very merry and we enjoyed ourselves...AND I had to get up at like 5:00 which I haven't had to do since I was the one waking up that early. But it's Christmas so I sucked it up and did it.

Samantha was waaaaaay into it this year (but thankfully not bratty or whiny because we had lots of discussions about gifts and gratitude and all that). Her favorite gift was her Princess clock from Santa. Quick funny story about her: While being into Christmas gifts she certainly didn't get the "gimme's" Since July she's asked for one thing and one thing only, a Princess clock with two hands and the faces of Princesses on it. Good thing Santa came through...phew!

Tommy is at that age that I love! One winning gift and that's all they want to play with, I think it's darling. Santa gave him a train set and he could hardly be called away to open more presents. I love it!

Eliza's favorite gift was either Tommy's Brown Bear, Brown Bear book and/or not being asked to open presents. She got so that she would arch her back and throw herself down when asked to open a present. I kind of like that age too, it's so funny. Plus I got to open all of the presents I wrapped for her plus grandparents presents-fun!

Okay...and the grand finale of both my post and the morning. Tom is so cute-he handed me two gifts and said open present "A" first and then proceed to present "B". So I opened the book "dSLR cameras for Dummies" and then TA-DAH!

Ohhh, I've been having fun! (Nikon D3000 for my friends/cousins into photography). Now I just need to learn how to be fancy with it. Yay for better pictures!