Christmas Celebrations

It was a great Christmas. It always is. And it always goes by WAY too fast. I feel like I work really hard the month of December (or maybe more like the week or two before Christmas) to make and buy presents, wrap them, think about it, did I get/do enough....etc. Then we have one day of pure magic, then it's over...and then Christmas hangover starts in for the next week. After hangover has subsided (generally after the new year), I feel refreshed and ready to accomplish real life again.

We started our festivities by spending Christmas Eve with the Shults'. We act out Christ's birth by Tom reading from the bible and the kids setting up the nativity. This year Since Emily and her family couldn't make a gathering for Christmas day, we exhanged her gifts that night. It was fun.

After that we came home and made cookies for Santa and set them out with Chocolate milk. Asa was CERTAIN that Santa would want chocolate milk.
Of course they got new PJ's
This is before the mayhem started. Santa had come, wrapped some of his presents, and left some out.
yes those are untouched presents under the tree. This was the first year that I attempted to put presents under the tree before Christmas day. It was a success.
Santa ate the cookies and left a nice little note
Their reaction to getting the kitchen that they wanted was priceless. I ran down the stairs before them so I could video their reaction. I thought for sure it would be jumping up and down with excitement. Instead it was a silent pause in disbelief....and the first words Asa spoke was "Santa really did bring me a kitchen". All he could talk about wanting was a play kitchen, with play food for Christmas. Then after the initial shock wore off they were SOOO excited.
They opened all the santa gifts first and then just TORE into everything else. It was total chaos, in a good way.
They were totally spoiled ROTTEN!
After a short while we went over to Grandpa and Grandma's house (no pictures, I don't know what I was thinking) and opened gifts with them and hung out there for a few hours. The boys couldn't hardly believe they got a kitchen, so they wanted to come back home to play with it...and of course I still had christmas sewing to do.....

So later on in the day the Shults' gathered at my place for the unwrappage of presents. Now the pictures below were the highlight of the night in a "you had to be there" kind of way. Nana gave Asa a sock monkey many years ago, and he has totally loved it...so she thought she'd get Coen one. Well Coen's was a little old school with a "mouth on the bum" as coen put it. Here is Coen's pure excitement for getting a sock monkey of his own.
Here he is getting ready to say Hello with the sock monkey's other mouth
And here we are with both of our sock monkey's.
Lexi was all tuckered out too
It wouldn't be christmas with out mom surprising me with a Barbie! I told her months ago that I wanted this barbie and ken set from Toy Story 3. I don't know why I found it so appealing, but I really wanted it....And I made a comment (in more disbelief that no one else had it in stock) that Smiths Marketplace is the only place that still had the set. Mommy surprised me and got it :)
It was a great Christmas day. There is nothing quite like the magic of Christmas day.