Christmas Morning at Home

James woke up at his usual eeeeeaaarrrrllllyyyy morning time on Christmas Day, but got to hang out with his Daddy in the kitchen. 

Natalie woke up at her usual time as well.  She’s enjoying some kuchen for breakfast.

At some point Natalie came and wished me Merry Christmas and got me out of bed.  :)

James mooched some kuchen – yum!

Joanna slept and slept and slept, so we let James and Natalie open their stockings.

In hindsight I should have put something in the new cup.  :)

Natalie was so cute opening her stocking!  She got a few new pair of panties, and she was so excited.  She kept saying “Is this one mine too?”  Poor middle child.

Look at that happy face!!

Still waiting for Joanna to wake up  -- building her felt snowman.

James got a “James” train in his stocking.

Finally about 8:45 Miss Joanna stumbled out of bed.

She had a couple of helpers when it came to her stocking.

The girls got Teddy Grahams in their stocking, and they shared with James.  He was a big fan.

The kiddos got quite a good haul, to say the very least!

Matt and I were each taking pictures from different spots in the room.  I thought this one was kind of neat because I had the flash off but snapped this one just as Matt’s flash went off from the left.

New dress-up accessories from Gran and David!

Joanna was so excited about the tag that said “To Joanna From Mommy and Daddy.”  She came and gave me a big hug!

I just love this age – both girls – they enjoy opening the presents and playing with the new ones.  It’s all so fun!

The children all made ornaments at school – LOVE them!  Joanna made an angel with her handprints.

Natalie made a snowmen family with her handprint.

And James gave us a wooden ornament with his beautiful face on it.

I LOVE this picture.  I think it needs no explanation either.  :)

The girls each got Christmas books from their teachers – they love them!  (You can see my new apron from Matt in this picture!)

And even though we didn’t wait until Christmas to open it – our iPod touch!

For the record, here are the major things the kiddos got for Christmas (I’m going to want to remember someday!)
James: “James” train, new lovey, new cup, Little People airport
Natalie: Little People house, build your own snowman, Jesus Storybook Bible, Little People van
Joanna: Melissa and Doug shopping cart, writing practice books and dry erase markers, Alphabet fishing game
Girls’ shared: play make-up, felt PB&J sandwich set

We went to church after opening all the wrapped presents and eating breakfast and getting ready.  James even got a nap in there somewhere!  After church the kiddos “opened” their large presents that were under blankets in the playroom.  I haven’t downloaded the camera from yesterday afternoon yet.  Those will come soon!

Christmas Eve, Through the Years

Each year just before we go to bed on Christmas Eve, I like to take a picture of the fireplace area.  That’s the spot where the house is most decorated.  (Sometimes it’s where the only decorations are!)

This is 2006 (Matt and I were engaged in by Christmas of 2005, but I don’t have any pictures!)

We had just closed on the house and were only barely living there.  I’m pretty sure at the time of this picture we were sleeping on a mattress in the living room.  Matt and I stuffed each other’s stockings, and the other gifts were from my dad and step-mom.

2007 – Joanna’s first Christmas! 

2008 – Joanna’s second Christmas, and I was imminently due with Natalie.  We only pulled out the little tree (and I think we bought the stockings that year).  All the ornaments were gifts that year, we didn’t pull out any decorations except we must have pulled out the stocking hangers.  I had Natalie’s stocking in reserve just in case she showed up early.  :)  The fourth one up there is my mom’s.

2009 – Joanna’s 3rd Christmas and Natalie’s 1st!

2010 – Joanna’s 4th Christmas, Natalie’s 2nd, and (wowza!) James’ 1st!  2010 I only remember due to the wonderful invention of pictures.  As you can imagine, it was kind of a blur.  :)

2011 – Joanna’s 5th (what?!!) Christmas, Natalie’s 3rd, and James’ 2nd.  Whoa.

I’m so thankful to have these pictures/tradition from each year.  I just love looking back – it’s amazing the changes you can appreciate just in the photos of one corner of the house on the same day each year!

Christmas Eve

Saturday we were able to spend some time with my sister and my mom – it was so nice!  That evening we got the kiddos (and ourselves) all dressed up and headed to the 7:00 service at the church.

I can’t believe I got a decent picture of all three of them!

This is the only picture we got of all of us, but I’ll take it!

It was a beautiful service; I sure do love Christmas Eve!  Sola Gratia sang, so Matt was on his own with the three kiddos – yikes!  He sat up in the balcony, and my mom and David were there for a bit of the service.  The Vandenberge’s were sitting nearby, and Joanna sat with them most of the service.  James was pretty cute – he kept waving at me from the balcony.  :)

When we got home the kiddos got to open one present!  Gran gave the girls some new pajamas to wear to bed (and James got to open some pjs from the next size up not to be left out of the opening fun – yay for hand-me-downs!)

I love this picture!

James loves to wave these days!

Cute pajama girls!

They wanted to dance!

It took a bit of settling, but they went to bed okay.  James actually fell asleep and slept through the girls being pretty noisy.  At one point I went in and separated them by pulling out the trundle for Natalie.  That seemed to quiet them pretty quickly.  They were in the same bed when we went to check on them later though.  :)

Christmas Eve Eve and Christmas Eve Eve Eve

I brought a gift card to a gift exchange and I wrapped it in a mason jar with M&Ms.

I thought it was cute… and tasty!

Totally a bad angle for me, but here’s my outfit for the Sola Gratia party Thursday night.  I like when it’s cold enough to wear my boots!

It was so nice to sit with grown-ups, eat DELICIOUS food, and chat with friends.  A great night!

Friday was the day Matt got off work for Christmas, and we had such fun.  A plumber came in the morning and fixed our toilet – wahoo!  James slept through it, but the girls thought it was so very interesting.

Last week we took Joanna’s car seat out of the van to use in another car, and we’ve been frankly too lazy to put it back in!  (We have a spare seat in the van to use for Ray or whomever extra is in the car, but with the school vacation, we haven’t had any extras this week.)  So it’s been sitting in the front entry, and James LOVES it.  He’s so cute climbing in it – he just talks and giggles like it’s the best time!

This picture’s blurry, but I didn’t want to forget how cute it is!

During rest time, Joanna escaped to show us her dress-up outfit.

She cracks me up.

Also a super-blurry picture of James, but so cute!  He had the best time playing in all that mess.  :)