late Christmas recap

Wow... this week time just go away from me! Here is our Christmas recap. We had a very nice, but very quiet Christmas at home. I really enjoyed how relaxing it was!

Jack and I went shopping on Christmas Eve, and then I came home and the kids and I baked cookies for Santa. Beth was so excited... she kept looking out the windows to see if she could find Santa out there anywhere. I just love this age where they so completely believe in Santa!

After dinner, the believers gathered up cookies and egg nog for Santa, carrots for Rudolph, and magic reindeer oats for the rest of the team. Since it was so cold outside, we opted to leave the oats in a bowl this year and let Santa feed them to the reindeer instead of scattering them on the ground!

Beth was fascinated by the idea of leaving cookies for Santa. She kept pointing to them and telling me which ones he could eat first.
Matt likes to be Santa now that he is older. We came up to wrap his presents, and we got downstairs to finish the other kids' stuff, we found that Santa had written a letter to the kids while he was waiting.
Then Santa helped load all the presents under the tree and added the Pop-tarts to the stockings.
Then the "reindeer" nibbled on the carrots and all of Santa's helpers enjoyed the cookies.
Christmas morning came bright and early. Todd was up and prowling for Santa at 2 am. I convinced him to go back to sleep, and we all got up at 6:30 and opened presents. The kids all got at least one thing on their list of things they really wanted.






Chet gave me this statue, and the thought he put into it is so sweet. I don't collect knickknacks, or anything that really requires me to dust, but I have wanted this figurine and this figurine forever. He saw this white one in the school store, knew I would love it, and bought it for me with his own money. Sweet, sweet boy!
After we opened presents, we spent the day playing with new toys and games, watching movies, and eating ham and potatoes. Beth gathered up every Barbie, Bratz doll, and doll she and Faith received, and went to twon playing with them. Apparently, that exhausted her... LOL... who falls asleep like that?

Yesterday it was raining here. As you can see, Kyle and Todd found a way to keep themselves occupied.
Hope you all have a safe New Year's Eve! We are having a party tonight, and all of the kids have invited friends... it is our tradition! We have some friends coming too.. .so we are all going to eat, play some games, ring in the new year with some sparkling cider, and then head to bed. I will upload some pics tomorrow. TTYS!