Christmas 2010

This year we kept Christmas Eve quiet around here, and it was nice!  We had our almost a tradition (3rd year?) potato soup, and we had some traditional appetizer fare in the form of hot dog crescent rolls.  I think Jake ate 4 of those (and each had half of a hot dog in it - ikes!).  Isn't the table pretty with our Fiesta ware?  :)

We left Santa some sugar cookies with trees on them that Pillsbury helped make.  Refreshingly easy, and Santa said they were delicious.  A win win!

We opened presents, the kids with great glee.  One of the best things about their age is the anticipation.  They would check under the tree every day before Christmas to survey for newly wrapped presents.  Bentley would count them up so he could compare tallies.  :)  He would compare box size too.  Silly kid!  They would check how many days left until Christmas and Santa finally arrived!  I love how excited they were.

I tried to distract (with only some success I'll admit) from a focus on receiving with some charitable activity this year.  Matt and I let the kids each pick an animal from the Heifer group that they wanted to donate, and then we took care of it for them.  We had at least a few minutes of good conversation with the kids about how blessed we are and how we can try to help others... it's a first step, right?!  Bentley picked a water buffalo, Jake picked goats, and Viva picked a flock of chicks!

On Christmas Day we lounged around in the morning (edit: we almost ALL lounged - I made the mistake of thinking apple dumplings would be an easy breakfast.  I did this last year too... next year I think I need to find something less time intensive).  We headed up to Grandpa Tim & Grandma Karen's in the early afternoon, where the kids had the fun of opening up a whole second set of presents.  We did Christmas dinner with family up there, as normal, and enjoyed a fun evening of games and shows.

To sum it up, here's a picture of all 5 of us in our Christmas finery.  Not as cute as the three stair steps in a row kidlet Christmas picture, but we're not bad!

We are so blessed and had a great Christmas season.  The kids are already asking how soon Christmas will come again.  Although it's fun it's a good thing it's only once a year - it's exhausting!