christmas festivities

A few days before Christmas we all got to open presents from R's parents early because they were going on a trip. I don't have any pictures of that, because we were face timing with them and holding onto the ipad the whole time. But it was such a special treat to do that with them early. It spread out the Christmas cheer a little and we recognize just how lucky we are to have such good family!

Christmas Eve for us somehow got completely unexpected. One thing after another and we ended up feeding the kids PB&Js at 7pm because our dinner wasn't ready. But we were still able to make it special and read the Christmas story from the bible and acting it out with our adorable homemade hand puppets given to the kids last year by a fabulous aunt. They loved this part! 

Then we opened our Christmas pajamas, which the kids thought were the coolest. :)

Small, cozy, and close. My favorite! 

 I somehow got lucky and snapped a picture of the scene after Santa had dropped all the presents off. Talk about perfect timing!

Santa was very thoughtful in his gifs this year ... each one had a purpose and fit perfectly into Mommy's organizational needs. How did he know?! 

 And I'm glad he liked the cookies and milk.

Christmas morning started out with the kids waiting at the top of the stairs. The video is long, and really just for my own memory sake. Once Daddy had music, lights, and the ability to keep his eyes open we all came down and the kids got to see what Santa brought. 

 We opened stockings first. 

 Perfect morning snack! 

Then we took a break and ate a yummy breakfast of french toast and caramel buttermilk syrup. Mmm.

Opening presents was a lot of fun! We took our time, and played with a gift if we wanted to. Which Lady-LE wanted to do after every single gift. 

Santa pulled through! This was one seriously happy boy.

 Santa overestimated just how close Lady-LE was to wearing the next size up. So we safety-pinned her pants (after she woke up in the middle of the night because her pants kept falling off! haha). She had this little duck tail sticking out all day and I loved it. 

 Some highlights of the presents.

 New climbing rope! Seriously cool! 

We laid low the rest of the day, and then go to go over to a sweet friend's house for a potluck dinner. Lots of families came, and it was the perfect touch for us. Ry and I are both middle kids, and I think because of that we both really love and almost need to be surrounded by others a lot. So while Christmas day was beautiful and our own, having dinner with lots of other friends was a perfect way to get in our people-fix. :) We are blessed to belong to a wonderful ward family here in Charlotte, and appreciate all the friends we have. 

 The next day was completely devoted to legos. Let's just say that it took R a while to warm up to the idea of putting it all together. 

 After the first couple of pieces started coming together he got really into it.

 To the point that he even voluntarily worked on it while L-man had a quiet time in another room. After the quiet time was over L-man joined him on the ground and continued watching. :)

 Once it was all put together they played for a long time together.

 It was so fun for me to hear them play with the whole set. R was pretty creative too in adding his own little touches to the sets, turbo boosters, extra spotlights, and even a grill for the police officers. He's thoughtful like that. ;) 

It was a WONDERFUL Christmas. We were blessed beyond measure - mostly because of the love we share with our family.