Merry Christmas!

We started off our Christmas Eve celebrations this year by baking Christmas cookies with the boys and then letting them go to town with the decorations....they made these stunning beauties especially for Santa...

Then we prepared to welcome some of our friends over for Christmas Eve dinner complete with a giant roast beast....which upon inspection of the final product (although everyone else thought it was delicious) I could not bring myself to eat....I guess baby number three is not a fan of roast beast......

After dinner David helped daddy put the star on top of the tree....

And then we put the children to bed and stayed up talking around the fire.....apparently Santa had already snuck in to eat cookies and drink a glass of milk in this picture :)

On Christmas morning we opened our stockings and I think David might have been excited to find out that Santa brought him Flynn the fire engine....for some reason he liked it more than the brand new pack of underwear....

The biggest hit with Henry was the wind up flashlight.....but the biggest hit with daddy was the remote control train our friends gave the boys.  Chris has officially declared it his, and from now on he will only be purchasing the children toys that he himself wants to play with :)

After finding out what St. Nicholas left us all and eating our fill of chocolate coins, we got dressed and headed off to mass....Flynn the fire engine accompanied us of course.....David was really excited about the transformation of the sanctuary with all of the poinsettias and Christmas trees and was desperate to see the giant nativity once mass was over.  Once we got there he paused for a moment examining baby Jesus and each of the animals then turned to me and said, "there's no reindeer here....that's strange."  I wasn't sure where to go with that so I just agreed that yes, it was strange indeed :)

Once we were home we sat down and opened the rest of our presents.  We all took turns opening one at a time.  Of course when I asked David who should get the first present he thought it should definitely be him!

Oh look, I made it into a picture!  David was kind enough to snap one of mom making tea.  He loves taking pictures now and I always find funny shots from his perspective whenever I download pictures!

I knitted Chris and David matching hats...I still think David's needs a giant pom pom on top of his but Chris disagrees......

Poor Henry didn't get one, but that didn't stop him from commandeering his big brother's...he didn't want to be left out of the hat wearing fun :)

Aunt Courtney sent a giant box-load of art supplies and a beautiful easel for the boys which was immediately a big hit!

Each of the boys got a couple of books, some dress up clothes to share and one main present from us.  David  was delighted to open his gift up and find a school bus, mail car and police car along with road signs and a bunch of roadways I made for him.  He ran around with all three vehicles saying "I like these! I like these!" in the most ridiculous voice you've ever heard :)

Henry got a box full of play kitchen supplies including some carrots, popcorn, peppers, and spaghetti that I made for him, and his favorite part....the salt and pepper shakers Chris and I made out of spice jars and beads.  He's been peppering me several times a day and insisting that I pretend to sneeze :)

Chris got me this super cute roll for my knitting needles!

After the presents were all unwrapped and the paper cleared away, we sat down for some real breakfast and lit the new white candles in our wreath.  Then we spent the rest of the day relaxing together, playing with our new toys and popping over to our friends' house for some delicious leftover food!

And then we wrapped up the day with some "Christmas Milk" a.k.a. eggnog (we had to rename it so that David would give it a try!)  He loved it, especially when I offered to turn it green after we finished reading his new favorite book Green Eggs and Ham!  After we got the boys off to bed, Chris and I settled in and finished off the evening by watching It's a Wonderful Life.....a wonderful ending to a wonderful day!

Merry Christmas!