Christmas Day

What a wonderful morning! Gage woke up first and then woke up Max and Eliza and they all came in and woke us up together. We opened gifts and had a delicious breakfast made complete by Grandma Jan's famous butterscotch rolls. The boys each got a new bike from Santa and Eliza got an Easy Bake oven. They also got books, board games, video games, movies and art supplies. Eliza also got a little barking puppy that she loves. The poor girl wants a puppy so bad, but this is the best we can do right now. We had a great day spending time together and later that night when we joined the Crowther's for dinner. I am really enjoying all of this family time. It's been great having the past week off to soak up special moments with my family. We really miss all of our family especially around the holidays, but we do feel blessed to be here together and for the special new friends that we've made here that we're able to celebrate holidays with.

I love this picture of Gage.


Max LOVES candy canes, maybe this one will keep him happy for a while.

Christmas just wouldn't be complete without Max getting some sort of art supplies. This gift was actually for Max and Eliza, but he also got some that were all his own from Grandpa Keith and Grandma Bobbie. He has always loved drawing and coloring. He's getting to be quite the little artist!!

I'm not really sure what these crazy faces are all about, but this girl looks like she is really going after those presents.....

Eliza with her new Fancy Nancy slippers. She LOVES these!! She wears them ALL the time. She is a girl who loves feeling fancy!!
Gage and Max with some fun new games from Grandma Jan!

Money from Grandpa Keith and Grandma Bobbie. Do they know this kid or what??
Gage is lovin' his new Tony Hawk game from Grandpa Jim and Grandma Patricia.

Does Max look excited about these new tennis rackets or what?! He's been wanting some ever since we moved in to this house since there's tennis courts here. Thank you Grandpa Jim & Grandma Patricia!
Max made me some sweet little ornaments and cards. He's so thoughtful.

Eliza and her sweet new Easy Bake oven. No little girl's childhood is complete without an Easy Bake oven right? Santa thought she should have one and were glad he did. She loves it!! She is always asking to use it. She's a little stingy with the end product though. Once in a while she'll share her tasty treats with us.



So proud of herself! I tried to get her to use Christmas sprinkles, but she only wanted to use Halloween ones. She made a second cake and this time used Christmas sprinkles. She was all set on giving it to Zack Crowther, but after about an hour or two she couldn't resist it anymore and ate it herself. It's the thought that counts though, right?!
Later that day we went to spend Christmas Day with the Crowther's. We had a delicious dinner and lots of fun with our great friends. Here's a sweet picture of Eliza and Abby. Eliza just loves this girl!

Here's Gage getting in a little gaming action of course. He was playing the Crowther's new Cabela game, Big Game Hunter. He was so proud of himself for being the first one to kill the cougar. What a sharp shooter!!

Max and Brendan getting into a little "Trouble"

Alyssa, Abby & Eliza

Aaron and Blake taking turns at Big Game Hunter.

Christmas Eve Festivities

Cookies for Santa

Every Christmas Eve we make sugar cookies for Santa. It sure makes a mess, but is so much fun we keep doing it every year. Any amount of mess would be worth it to me though because the kids love to make them. This year we also made cute little reindeer cookies with the pretzels and chocolate chips that Lindsey brought over and the kids loved them so much I'm sure we'll start doing them every year also.

I just love this NC weather! It is Christmas Eve and Eliza is in a sundress and Blake and Gage are in shorts, but we still have a little snow for a somewhat white Christmas.



Ooooh yum, look at that sweet cookie with a pound of sprinkles on it! Would you like some cookie with your sprinkles?? Eliza always wants Blake to try her cookies, but he can't stand sprinkles. He's a good sport about it though and at least takes a bite.

What a mess!!

Here are our finished products....

Reindeer Food

Every year we make reindeer food to throw out on the lawn for Santa's reindeer to eat while he's bringing in gifts. Santa gets cookies, they should get something also, right?

Christmas Eve gifts...

We always let the kids open one gift on Christmas Eve. This year we let them open two. They opened their pajamas and then something a little more exciting. I chose two for each of them and then let them choose one of the two to open.

Max opened a plug and play Pac-Man game. We played this at the Crowther's and the kids really liked it so we knew that this would be a gift he would enjoy. Gage opened Connect 4, we spent quite a bit of time playing this. We are a game loving family. Eliza opened the Hannah Montana movie she had been wanting so of course she loved it.



Here we are really getting into the game. I am the high score holder, woot woot! The console actually has about ten games on it. Some of them are Dig Dug, Mappy, other versions of Pac-Man, Rally X and Pole Position - classics!! This was very bad for my Christmas vacation, I played Pac-Man - A LOT!! Blake and I even played after the kids went to bed! Max didn't like that we had all of the high scores so he deleted them the little stinker.
Gage and Lize getting ready to watch Hannah Montana the movie.Here she goes singing the country-fied square dance song. She was trying to do all of the same moves that they were doing on the movie.
It was pretty funny! Max and Blake were cracking up watching her move it and shake it.





She had us rewind it so that she could do it all over again in her rock star dress, but she didn't want to take off her new puppy pajamas.
What a great day we've had together! We are so thankful to be a happy family and for this special time of year. I just love this sweet little family of ours!!