Our Christmas

We had a fun and chaotic Christmas!  First, we went to Christmas Eve Mass at 4pm on Saturday.  We took a few photos of the kids dressed in their Christmas outfits before heading out.  My little elves!

My little princess is getting so big!  She turns 2 next month, and she looks so grown up sometimes.

Christmas Eve Mass was probably a mistake.  It was the children's Mass and it was absolutely mobbed!  We got the last patch of standing room.  I think if we had arrived 2 hours earlier, we probably still would have been standing.  Arriving for Mass hours early is not a great plan when a preschooler and a toddler are involved.  Anyway, we'll plan on picking a different Mass next year.  Lesson learned!

After we got home and had some dinner, Austin and Sarah helped make a gingerbread house for Nanny and Grandpa as part of their Christmas gift this year.  Austin had a blast!

Then before bath time, we put some cookies out for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer.

For the elf's last day with us before he headed back to the North Pole for the year on Christmas Eve, he decided he'd spend the day smooching the angel at the top of the tree.  Austin definitely flirted with the naughty list on Christmas Eve, but ended up on the nice list after all.  He's lucky the elf must have reported to Santa an edited version of Austin's behavior.

On Christmas morning, Austin woke up around 7am, but we let Sarah sleep in.  Austin came into our room and watched some cartoons on PBS until Sarah woke up.  Here are the kids waiting on the steps, ready to see if Santa came.

The kids' stockings.  Santa brought them the "Prep and Landing" elves, Lanny and Wayne.

They were pretty excited about the goodies in their stockings.

Austin got some goggles in his stocking.  He's been doing a great job at swim lessons!

Sarah got her own toy camera from Santa.  Hopefully she will stop trying to pick up, carry around, and use Nanny's camera.

Happy children with their elves!

I had to go outside and take a picture of our home on Christmas day.  Notice - NO SNOW! and GREEN GRASS!  This is highly unusual for Christmas in Minnesota.  It has been in the 40s and sunny this week.  Steve has been singing "...just like the ones I used to know..."

Back inside...by the time Nanny and Grandpa arrived, the tree was starting to look a little overwhelmed.  A bit ridiculous even.  We are so blessed...but wow!  Lots of stuff!

The kids were very patient waiting to open presents until I got the ham cooking.

Excited kids!

Video of the kids opening gifts from Gramma and PopPop:

Giving Nanny and Grandpa the gingerbread house they made. 

I didn't get many photos of Austin opening gifts because he was a blur of excitement and was running around passing out everybody's gifts and opening his own.

Here is Sarah showing off her baby doll (not new) because she was so excited about the cradle and bedding the Nanny brought for her baby.  The bedding was a little quilt that Grandma Dot sewed for my baby doll when I was little.  How precious!  Unfortunately, in the chaos of the day, I didn't get a photo of her with her new cradle.

 She also got a toy cake.  She was so excited to get it out, she tried to pry it from the box herself.

Then she carried it around singing "Happy Birthday" to baby Jesus!

 Then picnic time with her cute new singing picnic basket.

She got a new baby doll, stroller, and crib from Gramma and PopPop.  She had lots of fun running the horsey stroller back and forth to the kitchen.

Austin was thrilled to get the trailer to his safari truck along with some really neat animals.

Games!

We're still working on being a good sport when things don't go his way, but overall, Austin's really pretty good at learning and playing new games.

Sarah with Great Grandma Dot.

Nanny with Kevin and Keng.  The KBs move to California later this week and will definitely be missed in Minnesota!  We got to see their beautiful baby on their ultrasound photos and we're all eagerly awaiting his arrival in April.

Austin was really intrigued by a game he got from Uncle Kevin and Auntie Keng.  It is a Lightning McQueen car that acts as the controller for a Cars game on the iPad.  All 3 kids thought it was pretty cool!

Today, we got some of their new jammies and clothes ready to throw in the washer.  When we got their new robes and slippers out, they wanted to put them on immediately.  What snuggly little cuties!

We had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed the celebration with family.  We were all worn out after the festivities and the kids and I took 3 hour naps today to recover from the chaos.  Of course, it made getting Austin to bed tonight harder, but still was a much needed rest. Tomorrow, we tackle the task of organizing the playroom to accomodate the new toys and pick out some to give away.

And as usual, life doesn't slow down from here.  We continue on our construction project in the basement, get back into the swing of things at work (cold and flu season for me and tax season approaching for Steve), and keep busy with the kiddos.