Merry Christmas!

Well, we probably went WAY overboard this year for the kiddos, but it was so much fun! We are so lucky to have my Dad, my Mom, and my Granddad Mike and Jan send money for the kids' gifts this year, so we made sure to make the gifts worthwhile. And BOY did Santa deliver! :) The kids got a playhouse and slide from Santa, Kaden got the coveted chalkboard/dry erase board he'd asked for, and Lila got a princess Little People dollhouse and Magenta rocking horse! Although, apparently the best things come in small packages, because when I asked Kaden what his favorite gifts this year was, he immediately said, "Hawkeye!"... the $7 last-minute gift I picked up to make the numbers "fair" for opening gifts. Great. Haha. But he quickly followed up with, "...and...." and listed almost every present he got, including his jammies from Momma E, which weren't even supposed to be a present, but who doesn't like to open MORE gifts??? :)

Stu got me the Oral B electric toothbrush I've been wanting for a while and a VHS to digital converter, which I NEED to save my old VHS video tapes that I am worried are going to break and be gone for ever if we don't get them converted... now I just need to get my hands on a functioning VHS player to do the conversion, lol. I also got heavy duty stainless Kitchenaid brand cookware, which is AWESOME. AND I got two cast iron pans, which I've wanted for a long time too. I could never list all the fun things the kids got, but suffice it to say, I have no idea where we are going to store everything. But it is fun to be able to have a big Christmas when we can, because it hasn't always been that way, and it certainly won't be again, so we are trying to enjoy it.

Another one of my favorite gifts was the ornament for 2012 that has a picture of all three of my kids in it (a rarity anyway). I think I love ornaments, which I never realized, but when the kids and us got them last year, I squealed with delight. This year was much the same. The kids all got stuffed animals from Mo and they are ALL sleeping with them now, so score one on that gift! Haha.

And Mimi and Papa got us (among other things) three of the stools I wanted for the kitchen bar. I am SO happy to have that "one more thing" off the list of things we need for the house. Every day our house is more of a home to us and fits us so perfectly. I am SO GLAD we got to spend Christmas as a family here and that, because of the size, our whole family was accommodated around one table (15 people in all) and there was room to spare if others could have made it.

We ended a fantastic day with Mimi's Standing rib roast, a ham, mashed taters, gravy, my Sweet Potato Casserole, Patty's noodles, green beans and corn with bacon, rolls, and stuffing. Everyone left full and we ended the day snuggling babies and laughing. Such a good Christmas.