Merry Christmas!!

Christmas morning we were woken by Campbell, at around 7:30am, not too bad :)  The big kids were awake and Campbell had peaked over the banister to see if Santa came the night before.  He let me know that he had.  Finn was still sleeping so we had to wake him up.  We went downstairs to see what Santa brought for the kids.  The kids all received what they asked Santa for.  Madeleine an American Girl doll (Gwen), Owen a keyboard, with stand and earphones, Campbell an acoustic guitar, Finn got Lego Trains (Thomas duplos) and Soleil got some baby toys (a lamaze octopus and a caterpillar toy). 

Then we went to see if Santa had filled the stockings

Yay he did!!

Owen delivering Soleil's stocking to her awwww

Ok stockings done......the kids liked what Santa left in them, now onto family pressies......coffee first!!

It was still nice and white outside

The path was really icy, so I stuck to the snow as you can see :)

Soleil and Jeremy getting ready to open gifts!!

Not sure how she does this, but every hat ends up over her eyes!!

Finn opening Soleil's first gift

Campbell got a lot of Lego this year

Madeleine painted these animals for Finn

Owen asked for a lot of brain teaser, logic and science things

Finn "I wanted this, I like this, they have it at Target"

This was one of my favourite ornaments.  When decorating the tree Madeleine accidentally dropped it and it smashed into many pieces.  She felt bad, even though we told her it was no big deal.  We picked up the pieces and threw it away.  Well that night Madeleine must have gone through the garbage and collected every piece she could find.  She somehow managed to piece it all together again and glue it for me.  I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened a box to find this in it, it is now proudly displayed on our Christmas tree and will be each year to come.  I loved it, it was the most thoughtful gift I have EVER received.  She is such a thoughtful and caring person.  The ornament is so much better than it was now because it was put back together with love by my own daughter. 

She loves American Girl

A snapshot of some of the chaos!

an eyeclops toy, he can magnify things and see them on the TV screen

After the chaos

Jeremy and Soleil playing chess with Campbell's new set :)

The champagne we bought for Soleil's birth and forgot to drink

The end to a perfect day

Christmas Eve traditions!

Well Christmas is over for another year. The build up to Christmas always seems to be stressful but all worth it in the end. The kids really get excited and therefore we get excited for them!! Christmas eve found us following our normal traditions. Jeremy had to work but when he was done we opened our first gifts of the year. Always new pyjamas, so our christmas morning pictures have us in nice new jammies :)

Normally we only open up our new pyjamas but Jeremy told everyone to wait and chose a present from under the tree for me.  I thought it was strange, but he insisted that I open it, even though I suggested we wait until Christmas morning. I thought all along it was a food processor, I thought it was weird that I was opening a food processor early!

This is when I realised what it was.  I have been asking for a DSLR for years!!  I didn't suspect that I was getting one because I know they are expensive and we spend most of our money on the kids at Christmas.

I was so happy that I started crying!

Yes I am a dork!! 

Now I know why he wanted me to open it Christmas Eve, he wanted me to be able to use it Christmas Day.  It needed to charge so we got that going and then put the little ones into the bath.

All nice and clean!

Next we go out to look at Christmas lights.  We do this a few times over the weeks leading up to Christmas, but we always do it on Christmas Eve as well.  We headed out earlier than usual because it was starting to snow and we didn't want to drive on bad roads.  We stopped by Starbucks and Sonic to get drinks, coffee for mum and shakes for the rest of the crew.  We stuck close to home and visited the Disney displays by the McKinney Country Club, nice and the roads were empty thanks to the weather :)

When we got home it was time to make cookies for Santa, I cheated and bought Pillsbury sugar cookies but the kids were still able to decorate them.

I love my new camera!!!

We left cookies and egg nog for Santa by the fireplace

and the snow was starting to stick!  A perfect Christmas Eve!!

We all settled in and watched ELF before the kids headed up to bed.

I love Christmas Eve, but our night was not over yet.......