The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Christmas was:  Beautiful, wonderful, exciting, much anticipated, and......BUSY!!!!  We had so much fun.  We ran from here to there, stopped at home, unloaded, reloaded, slept, got up, and did it all over again.  The kids had a blast, and did quite well on only a few hours of sleep.  Is it a little sad to say that I'm kind of glad it's over with?  I am, but I'm not.  Memories were made, smiles all around, and sore tummies from the laughs.  We crammed it all in in one quick weekend.  And today?  We played:)

I'm going to apologize up front for the utter, complete, excessive, PICTURE OVERLOAD....I couldn't help myself..I didn't know how to pick and choose.  Here it is friends....Christmas Eve- Eve right through Christmas day.  And, what was I thinking????- I didn't even take A SINGLE picture at our final family gathering.  I'm still kicking myself a little about that!!!

We started our own little family Christmas celebration on Friday night with a movie, pizza, popcorn party downstairs while watching Christmas movies.  The kids watch The Grinch, and we watched The Griswold's!

 

The next morning it was off to my parent's house for a little brunch and gift opening.  

Cute little girly cousins.

He was 'THIS" happy that Adi got her own Explorer, and he got a new game for his!

Beanie had lots of fun baking cupcakes for everyone!

 After opening gifts it was a quick rush to get ready for church and head out the door.  After mass we went to my Grandma's for our annual Christmas Eve celebration complete with Santa himself!

"Look we got the same-est thing!"- Eli

She was the bravest one of all.  First one on Santa's lap, and did most of the talking this time.

Classic!

They got to ring the jingle bells and sing a song with Santa.  They did a great job....all that listening to Christmas music for the past month has paid off!

The women's gift exchange game.

 Adi fell asleep at Grandma's at about 9:00.  We woke her at midnight, and pulled Eliott from the Wii, and headed for home.  Even though it was late, we still had to sprinkle our reindeer food in the front yard.  Eli was getting a little nervous with how late it was.  He didn't want Santa to pass over our house because we weren't in bed yet.  We quickly got everything taken care of and turned ourselves in for the night.  The anticipation was high in our house:)

Checking the sky to make sure he wasn't going to miss us.

Adi did the same thing!  They were looking for Rudolph's red nose.

Adi was the first one up the next morning, so I tried to distract her with all of her fun new toys while we waited for Bubbie to wake.

Clyde and Santa were here!!!  Clyde set the table with cute new Santa bowls and cups, and there was oatmeal waiting for us in the crockpot!  Santa ate the treats we left out, as did the reindeer, and he left us a note thanking us for everything!

New personalized pillow cases!  How fun

Snowmobile clothes- Just like Daddy's!!!

Each year we make the kids books with all of the pictures from their birthday party that year.  This is one of the best gifts- always a favorite for all of us.

They both stopped opening gifts for a while to check out their books as soon as they opened them.  I Love their excitement for these!  A treasure that we will hang onto forever.

All we need is some snow!

A canvas of Target Field for the bar, and a note that there will be tickets coming!

Mommy got one too!  We are now ready for some snow!

After opening gifts we spent some time at home enjoying one another.  We played, and played until it was time to head out for the next celebration.

My sister gave Beanie the cutest little princess dress-up outfit.  Fits her perfectly!

 Then it was on to the next celebration.

Our newest little cousin, Baby Margot.  These 2 cannot get enough of her!

Adi thought she needed to push Georgi in the stroller.  They were hilarious!

Especially with Adi hiking her tu-tu up to her armpits!

Then Adi wanted a ride, so Oliver helped her out.

Each year my aunt makes a birthday cake for Baby Jesus.  The kids enjoy singing Happy Birthday to him and blowing out the candles.  Not to mention eating birthday cake!

Reading a story with Auntie Lori.

Having This. Much. Fun:)

Flying their new airplanes.  The little ones are sure looking up to the big boys.

Oh, it sure is fun to get all these little ones together!

 And sadly, that is where my picture taking ended.

We still had one more celebration to attend.  As you can see it was a fun-filled few days.  We truly enjoyed one another and our company.  It was so nice to see friends and family that we haven't seen for a while.  We are sad that Christmas has already passed us, but are excited about what the New Year will bring!