Christmas 09

I'm having a hard getting up the momentum to finish posting about Christmas meanwhile there are other exciting things happening so here it goes.

An important part of celebrating holidays is dressing up for them. The kids had some way cute outfits. They had new church clothes (I wanted a family picture in them but that never happened), matching ones saying who needs Santa when you have Grandma and reindeer ones that said Santa's Helpers, and of course pjs. Aaron got to wear some outfits from Miriam the year before.

Christmas Eve didn't work out at all like I had hoped. I had so many things to do to be ready both present wise and for my family coming in. We got a late start to the day then I ran to the grocery store when we were supposed to be heading Eric's brothers house for a Jones celebration. We missed the gift exchange but otherwise we just enjoyed being with everyone. They did things a little different this year by having the grandkids do a talent show. I was impressed by everyone! We then had a traditional Goates (sister-in-law) dinner, followed by acting out the nativity story.

Miriam got to be the angel and Aaron just watched, maybe the nativity will make sense one of these years as the kids get bigger. We had told Miriam the story earlier using her little people Nativity. Everyone was getting tired and cranky by this point so we all went home to where the fun really began.

This was really the first year we were completely in charge of presents and getting ready for Santa. Eric and I sure had different ideas on how to handle the Santa thing, it is still a work in progress to be sure. We got the kids safely in bed then finished wrapping presents resorting to a garbage bag for Miriam's stroller. It took awhile despite having most presents done. I will admit to having fun being with Eric finishing the last things for Christmas.

Our end result- we got a pretty good haul! We treated the next morning as usual waiting for Miriam to wake up then took her into the tree to see what Santa brought. BTW I love love our sitting room for Christmas- it is perfect for containment and not easy to just see into. We did Santa presents, ate our Christmas fruit and had our breakfast casserole in the midst of opening our family presents to each other. We did video the whole thing, but not much other pics. Its important to me to show gratitude for gifts so we spaced the day out. When Russ and Deb dropped by to see us, we then opened the presents from them and miraculously gave them ours- a photo calendar (thought it wasn't going to make it in the mail because of snow storm). Then we played the rest of the day, got ready for my family to come late that night. Then opened presents from my family the next day (never mind I got up to try and finish Jennifer's that morning). I liked this system because it allowed Miriam to thoroughly enjoy each set of presents and give others a chance to see their expression. She was an expert gift opener by the end of the process and anxious to help brother too!

Our loot, though never got the family gift pic. Thanks everyone!