Christmas 2011: Photo Edition

We had a wonderful Christmas! It was my second year hosting dinner, and it went much smoother this year. (Which was surprising...I thought for sure I would be more stressed out/frantic/unprepared this year. But it went off without a hitch!)

 After a Christmas Eve gathering at my parent's house on the 24th, we came home to prepare for Santa. Dan read Stephanie The Night Before Christmas (a tradition his dad started with him when he and his brothers were little), and we put out milk and cookies. Then Stephanie spent time at the window, looking for Santa.

Both kids slept fairly well. In fact, they slept so good that Dan and I were up before them. When Stephanie eventually woke up, she refused to come out to the living room. We hyped up the "Let's see if Santa came!" thing, and she was afraid he was still in the house. Eventually, we convinced her to come out. She was thrilled with the pile of gifts stacked under the tree. 

The table and chairs were the biggest hit. She went right over and sat down. When we asked her if she wanted to open presents, she said no.

(Notice Joseph hanging out in his swing. That's where he spent Christmas morning.)

After a little while, she finally agreed to open presents. The first one was a dollhouse, and as soon as she opened it, she wanted it out of the box.

The morning continued in this fashion. Every present needed to be taken out of it's box and played with before she could open another. Since this took awhile, we piled Joseph's presents on the couch, with the intention of having her open them when she finished with her own. However, when she was done, we ate breakfast (homemade banana chocolate chip bread, delicious.) Then we all got dressed, and as we finished up my parent's arrived. We exchanged gifts with them, and then my Grandparent's showed up. More togetherness and presents, and then my mom and I put the finishing touches on the dinner buffet.

The rest of the afternoon was spent eating, continuing to exchange presents, and watching Stephanie as she entertained us all with her dancing, jumping, and singing. My sister and her family arrived in the afternoon for dessert, and more presents. It was adorable to watch Stephanie and her cousin Ree play together, giddy with the excitement of Christmas day.

By the time everyone left, we put Stephanie straight to bed, and had our stocking exchange. (Read about our stocking tradition here.) Then we fell into bed, completely exhausted. One of our last thoughts before going to bed? We never opened Joseph's presents from Santa. Oops. I don't think he minded too much though...

                                                    Hey guys...it was my 1st Christmas!

All in all, we had a wonderful day, full of family, love, good food, and, well...lots of presents.My children were very spoiled, and i'm feeling the effects of that now. The anxiety of trying to find homes for all of the new presents is driving me crazy! But, I know eventually things will get organized, and everything will get put in it's place. Until then...I think i'm going to ignore the mess and clutter and relax before we head off to New York for Christmas with the in-laws on Thursday. Merry Christmas everyone, I hope all of you who celebrate had as wonderful a day as we did.

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