A Day Full of Christmas!

Christmas was very different for us this year. Due to some recent changes in our family, we had to make some adjustments. The adjustments were not easy, but necessary and in the end they made the day very special.

We started the holiday by welcoming Grandma and Aunt Kelly on Christmas Eve. We enjoyed homemade pizza, finished the cake balls and prepared for Santa. Before heading to bed, Ivan picked out a few cookies, a carrot and poured a cup of milk for Santa. He was very anxious for Santa to arrive. I really don't think it was about the presents to him, he just wanted Santa to come over-Ivan LOVES Santa!

In the morning, Ivan rushed down stairs to find a cookie and carrot half eaten and the milk half gone. He also discovered large footprints that led to the back door, which was very exciting! However, he was a little disappointed to learn that Santa was gone. Apparently, he thought Santa was coming to stay!

We all opened our stockings and then headed to the Family Room to open presents. Ivan really wanted a kitchen for Christmas, so we thought he would be so excited to see the kitchen that was set up next to the tree. To our surprise, he was much more excited about the dinosaurs that were sat neatly on top of the presents. He picked each dinosaur up and told us it's name. Our favorite was the "flyosarous," you know the one with wings-that flies! We finally had to ask him what he really wanted for Christmas in order to get him to acknowledge the kitchen. Ivan did pretty good opening presents for a while, but started to slow down about half way through. He then looked at me and said, "just two more and that's it!" Of course Everett was not too interested in opening gifts, but he did enjoy playing with every box, pater and toy!

After we opened gifts from Santa, we had breakfast and waited for Uncle Marc, Aunt Kristen and Mallory to arrive. Once they arrived, we had lunch and went for round two on the presents. We let the kids open their gifts first so that we could let them nap while we finished our presents. We had a wonderful time visiting, opening presents and playing with the kids.

As Uncle Marc, Aunt Kristen and Mallory were leaving, Grandma Dahn and Aunt B were arriving. We usually spend Christmas day at their house, but they made the trip down to spend the night at our house this year. Soon after they arrived, we had round 3 of presents. It had been such a long day already and I had to excuse myself half way through so that I could feed Everett, so we did not even get the camera out for this round! We then spent the evening eating and drinking Sangria with both grandmas, Aunt Kelly and Aunt B.

What a fun and exhausting Christmas!!! Can't wait to do it again next year!