Our Little Christmas

This year we tried something a little different. We made the choice to be at our house on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning and that meant we would totally be on our own, just our little family of four. We actually loved it and will make this our new tradition I think. We did go to our church for the Christmas Eve service and sat with my sister Amy and her family but then we headed home to begin the festivites.

We opened our Christmas PJs, made reindeer food that Claire insisted needed to be blue, then we baked Santa his cookies put them by the fireplace and hoped he would visit soon. It was a fun night, especially once cranky Jakey was put to bed. He has not grasped the concept that Christmas Eve is a super fun night full of traditions and you are supposed to be happy all night long...maybe next year.

Christmas morning kind of cracked me up because when Claire woke up I said "Merry Christmas! Are you ready to go see what Santa brought?" She said "yes" and bounced out of bed and went straight to the couch to cuddle with Allan who had been up for a couple of hours with Jacob. She got totally into the show he was watching and I practically had to force her to get the stuff out of her stocking. It was SO funny.
Claire thought it was hilarious that Santa put panties in her stocking and her favorite present was the pillow pet that Jacob gave her. She likes Katie, her new American Girl doll as well, but it was not her favorite gift (which I knew would be the case, but that is a different story). It was really fun to watch her this Christmas once she got going ;)
Jacob LOVED his slide from Santa. He totally got into opening presents this year and had a tendency to climb on every gift he opened (see pictures above).
I love experiencing Christmas through my kids eyes, it becomes more magical every year.

After a restful afternoon Allan, Claire, and I cooked Christmas dinner and the Powells came over to help eat it. It was super yummy and so fun to finish out the day with family. The Powell kids had really been wanting to play Minute To Win It games so we busted out our supplies and let them play a few. It was such a fun way to end a great day.