Our Family Christmas

We kicked off our holiday celebrations yesterday by having our own family Christmas. Scott had the day off of work, so instead of our usual celebration on the 23rd (which is also Scott's birthday) we took the day on the 19th. I worked so hard to clean the house and get everything ready the day before so that we could have the "perfect" day together. Well things did not all go as planned!! First of all, Scott and I made the mistake of staying up until 1am on Thursday night - which was only made worse by Oliver waking up and not going back to bed until 2!! So needless to say we were very tired when the kids woke us up yesterday morning. Plus, Kalia woke up a bit cranky, and Scott felt totally sick and had a horrible headache from a hockey accident the night before. We pushed through the fog and gave the kids their stockings first thing and I made a pancake breakfast (which Scott could hardly eat . . .). Then I got the kids and I ready for the day while Scott tried to sleep off his headache for the next 2 hours. When he woke up, we put in Kalia's new Robin Hood video that had been one of her stocking stuffers and ate grilled cheese and Christmas oranges for lunch. Then, I had hoped to give the kids one gift each so they could play with them in the afternoon before naps, but they both seemed so tired and willing to go to sleep that we put them for nap. I had a nap also (which was crazy because I almost never nap) which took away from my own relaxing and supper preperation time. When we all woke up around 5, Scott had cleared the driveway :) but we realized that I had taken out the steak for supper but forgotten to marinade it. oops. I ended up just heating a can of corn, sticking potatoes in the oven, and Scott bbq'd the steak to perfection so we ended up with a very simple but still delicious meal. While supper was making itself (haha) we did gifts with the kids. It was fun seeing them react to their gifts. Kalia had been talking about her pet shop for over a month already, so luckliy we got her one! So we did still have a fun happy day even though everything didn't go as 'planned'. Just a reminder that with kids around, anything can happen! At bedtime when there were no further distractions I spent time explaining to Kalia why we have Christmas and give eachother gifts. She already loves talking about "Baby Jesus" so she was very attentive and asked questions about God's special present to us! Oliver is always so cheery in the morning - at least someone was!!

Kalia was pleased with her stocking filled with PlayDoh, underwear, slippers, stickers, a coloring book, and a movie

Oliver got bath toys, a vibrating teether, baby spoons (so far he's been using only pink ones - poor second child!) and LOTS of socks

we tried a few timer pictures and this one turned out the best

This was the face I got when I asked Kalia to smile for the camera!

Little Ollie was happy with his toy even before it was opened!

Kalia giving daddy his gift (a hard drive for the computer)

Yay! Her Pet Shop (or Ket Shop as she calls it, and I can't bring myself to correct her because she hardly says any words wrong anymore!!)

Ollie loved his falling block tower from Kalia Kalia doing a little boogie to the musical books that Oliver gave her - he picked them himself - ha ha!

Kalia and Oliver gave me the fuzziest pair of pink slippers! Kalia had been quite insistent that she had to have a gift for mommy even though my big gift was the family pictures that we did this year.

I was a little disappointed to her reaction over this Barbie. It was my fault though. We got these also for 3 of her friends, and I let her help to wrap them. The very first one she saw, her face broke out in the HUGEST smile and she shook with excitement and said "Oh it's beautiful!! Is that barbie for me?!" I shouldn't have let her see it before I guess. She was still happy for it though. I was so excited to give her first barbie to her because some of my best childhood memories were of playing barbies with my sisters

Here is Oliver opening his first Christmas gift ever! Notice how his arms go out and he shakes with excitement! It was fun to watch. That was a nice thing about doing our own Christmas so early is that our gifts to the kids were the first ones they opened.