What a Merry Christmas It Was!

Hello, everybody! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I know we did! Here are some photographical documentions of the wonderful day we had!

We had Christmas Eve dinner here ate our house. After dinner, we got all the kids together to do a live natvity scene. We have done this every Christmas season for as long as I can remember and my mom has really got quite a collection of costumes over the years!

Here are all the kids lined up getting ready to start.

L was Mary, D and B wise men.

CK was an angel, and a very happy one at that!After the nativity, we did the cousin gift exchange where the kids got to open the 1 present that was from their cousin. B and Zach are very funny about OJ. They think it is the coolest thing ever. This could partly be because Dave loves it so much, but doesn't share it, so it is sort of the forbidden drink. B has gotten juice as a present for his last 2 bdays and also last Christmas. He had Zach's name for Christmas this year and so we decided to give him OJ. See how happy he is?

Just after Zach opened his present, it was B's turn. His present was from Zach and surprise, surprise!!! (Zach also got him Tiger Woods "skater-aid." He just couldn't make up his mind what would be better so he did both. Such fun little boys!)

Christmas morning... breakfast is done... dishes are done... (yes, I make my kids eat breafast and clean the kitchen before opening any presenst or seeing what Santa brought them) time to see what Santa brought! All lined up and ready to go into the living room to see this years spoils.

B and his haul... his big gift was the bike, but can you see what he is proudly holding that Santa brought him?
CK's favorite gift was an "Uh-oh, gotta go!" Doll. It goes to the bathroom on the toilet (and yes, there are visual images for after her visit to the porcelin throne). She also really loves her Dora Sleeping Bag.KL got an Inch Worm. She is still a little small for it, but she still thinks it is cool. The other kids have certainly enjoyed it for her, though!

The thing she has loved the most was the stroller for the dolls. Amid all the toys and presents, the stroller was the first and only thing she saw and she immediately started pushing it around.D has really loved his MP3 player (actually, B & L also got one, just not as cool, and they aren't quite as obsessed with it). He also got a thing to hold his shoulder pads and helmet.
L got mostly pre-teen things... Hanna Montana, HSM, Camp Rock... all things right up her alley. She also got an Easy Bake oven and plenty of make-up that we are hoping is almost all gone!
After we had fun playing with all that Santa brought us, we went down stairs to open our other presents. KL caught on really quick how fun it is too rip the paper off.

CK opening

L opening. This shirt was one of the first things she opened and she loved it so she went and changed right away. She actually told me she likes it so much, she's even going "to try not get it ruined!" That is the first time she has ever made such a promise!

D opening

B opening

This is a special present to Dave from B. There is a very cute story about this, but it is a little long so it will be in a post all it's own, but remember this gift...My little sister helped to get the our family a very special present. Here are the boys opening it.

My grandparents had given us some money for Christmas. Dave and I decided to use it to take the kids out to dinner then pick out a movie that they could watch with their cousins. We were planning on taking them someplace nice like PF Changs, but when when we made our intentions known, there was much weeping, wailing, and knashing of teeth, mostly by B and L who just wanted to go to Chic-Fila. I decided there was really no reason to take them someplace that was so much more expensive that would just make them upset, so off we went to Chick-fila (we also had a couple of free kids meal coupons, so score even more!)

And this is the reason they wanted Chick Fila so bad... playland!

And by the way... this was the first year we had a child who couldn't sleep through the night. B was up at 3:30. I heard someone awake outside our room in the family room, but when I went to check, I didn't seen anyone. I could only see that someone had gotten one of the blankets out. A few minutes later, I heard KL in her crib. I laid there for another few minutes waiting to see if she would go back to sleep on her own, but then I heard a loud bang so I got up to investigate. Before I got to her room, I saw her run around the corner. I guess B had gone to lay on her floor, woken her up, then got her out of bed...maybe hoping if she were up, everyone would be allowed to get up. He did manage to go back to sleep. This was also the first year when we didn't have to wake them up. No throwing pillows at their door this year! D had all the kids dressed and beds made and upstairs by 6. He was a little confused when I told him they all had to go and put their Christmas PJ's back on. This was the first time they were told to go and get undressed so they could play! Nonetheless, they quickly complied and were nothing if not helpful as we made breakfast and cleaned up.