Merry Christmas!

Christmas day has come and gone, but we are still celebrating. My sister Laura and her husband Eric and my little niece have flown East and my parents are up here as well. We are getting ready to have "Christmas" all over again tonight at Sarah's house tonight.

And as for the actual Christmas day? Oh, what a morning. Every year when its all over, we vow to not do as much, but it never seems like its out of control until you see the loot all displayed together (and putting it together and until you are up well past one in the morning!).

This year the hit of the day were these sleeping bags/tents. They were very inexpensive and were great to hold all their stuff so that it wasn't all over the house all day long.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with Kyle's mom and our friend John. John and Kyle were recruited to help the girls put on their version of the Christmas. Riley made a great baby Jesus. We sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and had birthday cake. Then, we saw that Santa was only an hour and a half away on the Santa tracker, so off they went to brush teeth and go to sleep. Luckily, they made it all night long. They even slept until 10 after 7:00!

The pictures above are the girls waiting to see Santa, their loot and then their faces as they walked in the room. I love seeing their excitement every year. It makes all the work worth it!

Sarah and Kris came for Christmas breakfast, just like my Mammaw, Pappaw and Aunt Karen and Uncle Mack used to. We had the traditional breakfast casserole, sausage balls and monkey bread. Then after straightening up, getting stuff put together for that afternoon and putting Riley down for a nap, Kellen, Jenna, Kyle and I actually got to sit down and relax! We watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It was really nice and before all the chaos it was just our little family. And just like she says every year, Kellen said it was the best Christmas ever. I hope that is always the case.

Then, Kyle's dad and Dorothy and her daughter Alyssa came over and we opened more presents. Then, Kyle's sister and her husband Tod came over and we opened even more presents. It was a very fun day. We got to spend a lot of time with Colleen and Tod and even got to watch another movie (The Wizard of Oz)! Then my parents arrived and the fun began again!

Yesterday the girls played with just about every toy they got and we took a trip to Stew Leonard's to show my parents just how fun going to the grocery store can be. Today will be another cooking day and we are going to head north to Sarah's and spend the day with them. Kyle has to work, so he will come up later. Sarah and Kris taught their dog, Sissy Mae, how to pull a sled, so the girls are going to have fun outside! We are also supposed to get snow/ice all day today.

I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to the new year!