Merry Christmas!

I can't believe that Christmas has come and gone. We've spent a busy past 3 days celebrating like crazy. On Sunday night we drove to a house near here that has over 250,000 lights over 3 acres. It was really cool. It was also really cold outside. All we needed was a little snow to make it perfect.

We only had our old cruddy camera with us, so not the best pictures. But take my word, there were a lot of lights. I also snapped a couple just for fun shots:

This was a tree made of signed CD's and lights.

And these were plastic cups with the lights shoved through them. Both really cool ideas.

We spent our Christmas Eve with our friends Andre and Tonia. We all pitched in together to make a huge and fabulous meal.

I ate so much it hurt. But it was oh so good. We had a honey glazed ham that was to die for! We all sat around afterwards just talking and watching Christmas shows on TV. And since their family was all so cute in their matching outfits I had to take a picture of them:

It was so much fun. Thanks Andre and Tonia!

We came home afterwards and finished up all the gift wrapping and helped out Santa with getting the gifts arranged. I made a deal with Ella that if Santa gave me the gifts to bring into the house, he was allowed to come to our house. She is so afraid of Santa. So after doing my part of the deal this is how it all looked:

I could sit in the dark for hours staring at lit Christmas trees. I love it. But it was after midnight at that point so we headed to bed for a long winter's nap.

The kids slept in until 8. They really don't get the whole presents thing yet. I was wide awake at 6 something debating if it was normal for a mom to wake their kids up on Christmas. I think I was more excited than them. What I wanted to see most of all was their first reaction to the presents, and I got some pretty good ones.

Ella is saying "LOOK!!" She had just spied her LeadPad and settled straight in to playing with it.

Alex also saw the LeapPad and could have cared less that he had a giant yellow Tonka truck to play with.

What a cutie!

We had gotten them a box full of band instruments, and Anton had to bust them open to keep Alex from stealing all of Ella's gifts.

He was satisfied with that. He really did want every gift Ella opened. I think he played more with Ella's Little Mermaid cell phone and Dora doll than any toys he was given. I tried so hard to get him boy toys and he still wants the girl ones. What am I to do?

After doing the Santa gifts and stockings we moved on to the second most important part of Christmas morning, breakfast.

Now my mom makes homemade cinnamon rolls every Christmas morning. However, I am completely baking dysfunctional when it comes to anything with yeast in it. So I'm all about the Pillsbury canned cinnamon rolls. Yum. Bring it on.

Then after that short intermission it was back to the ripping and tearing open of the gifts.

And this continued on for a short while. I made it a point to drag it out as long as possible. We opened all the toys and assembled everything then let the kids play for a bit. Just so the whole thing would last a bit longer. I didn't get many pictures after this point because I too was opening gifts so you will just have to picture it in your head.

My main gifts were a microwave, since Anton had broken the rotating plate in my old one and it was almost as cheap to just get a now one than replace the plate, and a day spa package to get a massage, manicure and pedicure. My hubbie is so good to me. I also got all sorts of other little things.

I got Anton running stuff. A running magazine, a running mp3 player, running headphones, running ID, etc. He's really into running. He even went running today just to try it all out.

Ella got the largest gift by far.

This was from Grandma. She absolutely loves it. She takes her LeapPad in there with her Disney Princess book and sits forever. I may have to relocate it to her bedroom though, it clashes with my living room decor.

Alex got lots of trucks and doesn't care a bit about them. Silly boy. I also got him a pound-a-peg bench, which Ella has played with more than him.

Looks like I got all the wrong toys for the wrong kids. Oh well. They share amongst themselves anyways.

Then, sadly, it all came to an end. It always ends too quickly. And you are left with this:

I love it. Christmas messes are the best. It's almost like getting gifts all over again when you are cleaning up and find something buried under all the paper. "Hey! I forgot about this one!" We ate leftovers from last night and it was just as good as having made the whole meal today, but better since I didn't have to make it! I think this whole Christmas Eve dinner is the way to go.

And now we have spent the rest of the evening playing with our new toys and getting the house ready for the arrival of the in-laws tomorrow. They will be here for 10 days. Anton is planning all sorts of wild adventures. But that will be another story.

We wish you all the very best Christmas and a wonderful rest of the holidays!