Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning....

My intentions were to have all of these posts done before the new year but alas, my tendency to procrastinate has prevented me from reaching that goal. Better late than never though!

Christmas Eve was awesome for 2 reasons this year:

1. I had completed all my shopping by the 2nd week of December and if
you know me, then you know what a miracle that feat alone is! It allowed for a lot more relaxation :)

2. Anticipation! I love Christmas Eve better than Christmas Day
because everything is so magical still. After Christmas morning is over,
it feels like the holidays end....I think this is why Christmas Eve is my
favorite day of the year!

Christmas Eve afternoon we gathered at Nathan's house for what has become our traditional pizza lunch/gift exchange with my brothers. It is always a great time and we love spending time with everyone. The little ones of course make it even more enjoyable. Soren wouldnt pose for my camera but he didnt mind spinning in circles for me! He is in his own world and is so much fun to watch....

Here is Jude, the youngest of the bunch getting excited over the stuffed Frog we got him. He is so cute!

We were happy that Jeff and Nicola were able to come by for a bit even though Nicola was not feeling well. It wouldnt have been the same if they hadn't come! Jeff was pretty happy about his Snowbird ski pass that he recieved!

We all LOVED the gifts we received and I am grateful to have my brothers living close by. I love this picture of them cracking up. One thing our family knows how to do well is laugh.

Later that evening, Denver flew into town for his Christmas break. He is still here as I am typing this so he was able to enjoy a nice extended break from 70 hour work weeks! He will be returning to South Carolina tomorrow and I know the kids are sure going to miss him until his next visit. We made cookies for Santa that night also, although this year I let go of my usual necessity for perfect cookies and bought pre-made dough (gasp) and pre-made frosting (double gasp) and I had the kids use sprinkles that we already had in the cupboard. Im not sure what it was but I just decided that perfect Santa cookies werent necessary and very time consuming....time was something we didnt have a lot of this year. Sadly, the pre-made dough is not intended for rolling and cutting out shapes...as you can see these blobs of sugar cookies were originally christmas trees, haha...they turned into crispy disc's instead.

Oh well. I just love the colors that the kids chose to use....pretty much every color I had in the cupboard! Im sure Santa didnt mind ;)

Of course we can't forget to mention the Christmas Eve PJ's....thanks to Momaw (Denvers mom) for providing them along with the cute accessories seen in the picture.

Addison is also wearing her Hello Kitty slippers that Grandma and Grandpa Ries (my parents) gave her. She got to open them early because she was having a PJ party on her last day of school and had been begging me for slippers to wear. Knowing that my mom had gotten some for her, I had to let her open them. Evan is obssessed with the How to Train Your Dragon movie and has watched it everyday since Thanksgiving when my parents gave him the movie as an early Christmas present. Then of course Momaw sent him a stuffed dragon from the movie and he was over the top excited.

We watched a couple of movies before bed and then proceeded to finish up Christmas Eve. I always love the tree after the presents have been laid out...its one of my favorite pictures to take.

Everything turned out perfect and I was so excited for the kids to open their gifts the next day. The biggest gift under the tree was Addison's and as you can see she was more than thrilled to see that Santa brought her the Barbie Dream House that she has begged us for week after week for the past 6 months!! I remember when I got my Barbie Dream House although I was a little older :)

And here is Ian with one of his favorite gifts... LEGO Harry Potter. I think he may have been just a titch disappointed that he didnt get more Lego sets than this one but he was overjoyed to finally get his own Nintendo Dsi so hopefully he got over it!

And last but not least is Evan with one of his favorite gifts....One thing that I love about Evan is his simplicity and the fact that if I gave him a rock, he would cherish it for life. So sweet. This is his Discovery Channel Shark Week set of DVD's. Evan loves sharks and plans on becoming a Marine Biologist when he grows up....after watching some of the DVD's with him, this mom hopes he changes his mind and picks a nice desk job!! Yikes!!