Our Christmas, Part 1

This picture cracks me up. I've never been so excited to have trash day before. This pile represents the craziness that is Christmas. I'm sure all of you had a similar pile of empty boxes, wrapping paper, and holiday meal leftovers. Ours also included a 9 foot crispy dead tree, that could have been sent to the curb about a week before Christmas...it was really dead. Anyway, enough of the trash talk. On to the Christmas report....

We had a fabulous Christmas and enjoyed our kids more than ever this year. They were at such fun ages for all of the Christmas fun and every day was another fun celebration for them. I won't bore you with the details of every gift and every dinner and every Christmas, but some of the highlights include:

*Lots of wonderful time with family. We have the best family and are so blessed by their love for us. We enjoyed all of our time with our parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers, baby cousin, cousin on the way, and lots of aunts and uncles on both sides. We even got to see my great-grandmother twice during Christmas week! (Note to family, or really my sisters: If you're not pictured here, it doesn't mean we don't love you or didn't have cute pictures of you. I ran out of room, and will be adding in other pictures in the next few posts....)


* Wonderful memories with our children. From Christmas-light-watching to baking cookies, to visiting Santa, to making Christmas breakfast with Daddy, to watching their eyes light up at each and every gift......it's all so wonderful.

*Great blessings from our families---our kids got showered as usual, along with the two of us. All kinds of toys and gifts, including many pictured here. We've had to clean out lots of room for all of our new treasures!

*Fun times with just the four of us. Christmas morning has always been "our special time" and it was absolutely wonderful this year. When our holiday schedule gets so hectic with missed naps, random meal times, and late bedtimes, it's easy to get overwhelmed, especially as children. So, I loved getting to be home for Christmas morning, enjoying Santa surprises, presents from each other, breakfast together, and lots of playtime. It was so calm and I found myself sitting back just watching my two precious girls play together. I couldn't help but think about how fast this all goes and how next year I will barely be able to remember what this year was like. Thank goodness for video cameras!

*The Santa presents were very successful this year and made it very fun for us. Kendyll asked for a trampoline, and got a mini exerciser version, which they both LOVE. It is so cute to watch them jump together. She also got her piano keyboard with a microphone, which has made for some priceless video material. And, her Leapster LMAX (a younger version of a gameboy type thing) which she calls "a computer with pen on it"....it took me a while to figure out what she meant when she was making her original Christmas wish list!

Carlie, being the not-so-girly girl, got a basketball goal, which has kept her very busy, as well as a few other fun things---mostly balls, animals, or Elmo toys, her favorites right now. However, she did surprise me when she got her first Cabbage Patch doll and actually carried it around without throwing it, and even fed it a little pretend baby food and a bottle! I had hope for her as a big sister, and eventually a mother, after seeing that!

Overall, a great Christmas. More memories to come in the next post. (For some reason, I can't get this darn thing to download all of the pictures at one time! So, they're coming in pieces....)