Our Christmas

Better late than never? So I've been super busy and a little overwhelmed so I am just now posting about our Christmas this year.

This was the first year we didn't do any traveling what so ever and I have to admit, it was quite enjoyable. We didn't have to rearrange the kids sleeping schedules or try to keep them out of trouble in a foreign environment and the kids got to go to sleep in their own beds and wake up to Santa's presents the next morning.

Christmas Eve, we went over to grandma and grandpa's house for the present exchange. We take turns with one sibling each year and we had Jared's youngest sister this year. I had a lot of fun shopping for her. I love to cook and I remember having a conversation with her about how she wanted to get into cooking more. I bought her most of my favorite things when it comes to cooking and they were received with great appreciation. I was glad I did it because of the sound of what she had been using (peeled, busted pans). I also gave her the movie Julie and Julia which is a great movie as well.

The next morning, we set our alarm clocks for 5:45 in the morning so we could be up to catch their expressions and excitement. Well, Addison woke up at 6 and had the right idea without knowing anything.

We waited and waited and then at around 7 in the morning, Hadley finally woke up.

We let her check out her stocking and then got her to go wake up Hayden since it was getting later and we were getting antsy.

After Hayden was done checking out his stocking, we did the Christmas story watching a short movie clip of it since I couldn't find my felt figures at the time. Then, we had them open their big presents from Santa. We played with those and then took a break to eat breakfast (I always feel sick on Christmas due to lack of eating habits on that day minus the three times I have been pregnant as it is :0)).

After eating some scrambled eggs and sausage, we continued opening the rest of the presents. The kids enjoyed their new toys. Santa brought Hayden the Lego Star Wars he had asked for

and Hadley got some Littlest Pet Shop animals of her own finally.

Addison got some little people stuff and more things to chew and bite on.

The afternoon was spent with some visits from Jared's family members from out of town. I was so happy this Christmas was so much more peaceful and relaxing. Such a nice change of pace from the usual.