Merry Christmas!

We survived the children's mass and made it all the way through Christmas morning--the children are napping (well, one is anyway), the turkey's in the oven and I'm taking a break! Who wants to see some pictures of holiday cuteness?

I had a feeling you would :)

Apparently Santa could have saved a lot of time if he had just given Henry chocolate coins and candy canes. While everyone else was distracted opening up their own presents, he--very sneakily--gathered up everyone else's coins and made a giant stockpile......

 Santa made all of daddy's dreams come true and brought him his very own baby raccoon.........

Santa also brought each of the boys a totally awesome and ridiculously large wooden pirate ship.  I started to get nervous last night that they could be a flop--when St. Nick is only really bringing one toy you really hope it will be appreciated or it could be a very sad Christmas morning!  Luckily there was no need to fear because the boys LOVE them.  I just need to make a flag for each one so the fights over whose ship is whose will *hopefully* come to an end!

David quickly brought all of the nativity figurines over for a ride and then spontaneously burst into a round of "Happy Birthday, praise you!"--the happy birthday to Jesus song they sang at the end of the nativity play last night--which was beyond precious.....and I think it more than made up for telling the older boy who asked him what Christmas was all about last night that it was in fact all about Santa and presents......

Uncle John also provided the boys with a great wooden marble run and a couple more sets of magnet blocks which apparently you can never have too many of.......

This also marked the first year that Chris asked for something other than "socks & underwear" so I was really excited to finally be able to save up and get him something amazing! Of course it was entirely too heavy for me to lift into the house in my current condition (or ever!) let alone wrap so once it was delivered I used our dolly to sneak it into the garage and there it stayed until this morning :)  I don't think he minded too much.......

The biggest hit of the morning, with the menfolk anyway, were these balsa wood airplanes that they all found in their stockings......

 .......after a morning of stupendous aeronautical stunts they don't really fly anymore but they were well worth it for the fun they provided while still in one piece......

My favorite thing is definitely the marble run...I was working on this beauty when Henry tried to come and play too--of course I had to chase him off--you know he would have ruined it :)

Don't worry, I eventually shared with him......and he did eventually knock it down.........

Here's wishing you all a very merry Christmas season!

UPDATED:  When Henry came out of him room after naptime, with his entire face covered in chocolate, he walked up to me and, smiling his most Chris-like devious smile, informed me that he had been eating chocolate coins.  Apparently he had snuck them into his room inside his pirate ship and been feasting on them.   I couldn't be mad at a boy with such a cute chocolate covered face who was obviously very proud of how sneaky he was.  Later when I found the coin wrappers, chocolate covered bed things and little chocolate handprints all over the walls I have to admit I was less amused :)