I'm finally getting around to Christmas

Christmas morning was really exciting for us. Adam and I had planned on staying up really late getting everything ready, but we ended up in bed a little before 11pm. We slept until 8am when the kids woke up, I put in my contacts so I could actually see things, and then we ventured out into the front room. Jack and Olivia were super excited to see that Santa had eaten the cookies they decorated and the reindeer had eaten the carrots. Adam went upstairs to wake up his mother and move the air mattress while I made the kids take the cliche picture on the stairs before they saw what Santa brought.

Olivia is holding the letter from Santa, thanking her and Jack for the cookies and carrots. She carried the letter around all morning. They are also wearing the jammies that Santa brought them the night before (I forgot to mention that in my last post). Olivia has Princess and the Frog, Jack has Ben 10 and Madelynn has Disney Princess. Thank you WalMart Black Friday!

Jack's loot, including the Batman castle from Santa that he's been coveting for months, and a train table from Adam and I that only stayed this nicely put together for about 30 seconds. We thought we would be up all night putting this thing together but it seriously took Adam like 20 minutes. Awesome.

And here is Olivia's loot. My dad worked for a month making this doll house for Olivia. It is about 5 feet tall! He would go in to his shop after work and stay for hours. He was literally obsessed with this doll house and had so much fun making it for her. He left it open on the two sides so multiple people could play with it, and he even hand made the mantle, put the tiling up in the fire place and had some friends put in real glass windows on the second floor and make the mirror above the mantle. He made the four-poster bed too and it is all A. MAZ. ING! He bought some furniture for it (the ones in the pink boxes) and every thing else is furniture that I and my sisters played with when we were younger. Oh, and Olivia also asked Santa for a video game, which she got, to go with the....

WII!!! Olivia has been begging for a Wii, and Adam and I finally caved in for Christmas when we found a good deal on one. We found a screaming deal on the Disney Princess Enchanted Journey (or something like that) game for her too. She was excited, can't you tell? Now she is better than me at all the Wii Sports!

LOVE this picture. Sharon was holding Madelynn across the room and I zoomed in on her, and as soon as I did she smiled and waved at me. So stinking cute!

Look, even Santa shops Target clearance!

Madelynn's first Christmas was pretty low key. She got some toys and some snacks in her stocking. She was in heaven with her new toys. She really likes to put toys into baskets and boxes, so we got her a shape sorting basket too and it is one of her favorite things.

Olivia got Princess Tiana, as well as Scrabble Jr (thanks Lafrancas!) and some clothes and pajamas among others.

Jack got Humongasaur (from Ben 10, and I'm not even sure I spelled that right, and thanks Lafrancas!) and a semi truck to hold his cars, as well as some clothes and a huge Mr. Potato Head.

I got Adam a Snuggie (no seriously, he wanted one!), Modern Warfare 2 for his XBox and a gift certificate for an XBox Live account. He got me some clothes and shoes (yeah for new boots!) and a new book for our cruise. Seriously, there are no pictures of me from either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. I need to hand the camera off more often!

After opening presents, I made cinnamon pull aparts, which is a tradition that my mother did every Christmas morning. They are made with ice cream in the sauce so they are super yummy! We then cleaned up and Adam and I packed for our cruise that we were leaving for the next morning. Then my sister Celeste and her family came over for Christmas dinner of homemade eggrolls and fried noodles. It wasn't our traditional Christmas dinner, but we were all leaving the next morning and really didn't want to bother with a bunch of cooking and baking on top of all the packing we were doing. Eggrolls are our new New Years tradition, so we just celebrated with the eggrolls a few days early :)

That's Christmas! It was fun and stressful and exciting. We will definitely be incoporating more traditions next year when I don't have a cruise to be thinking about! Next up, our cruise! And Madelynn's first birthday!