Let's finish Christmas...

A few days after Christmas we drove over to my parents house in MD to see some of our other relatives.  The kids had some gifts waiting for them from CC.  CC's gifts are always winners.

 Here's Mace the Knight!

 Julianna loves her owl blanket.

 We went to visit Uncle Arthur next door.

 Then "Baby Ry Ry" arrived.  

 Trying to get pics with everyone looking in the same direction is difficult!!

 I love this picture the Mom and Dad with all 3 of the grandkids.

 More excitement to follow when all (most) of my cousins came by with all of their kids.

Mason was particularly being a monkey and I never did get a picture of them all looking at me.  Oh well, part of the deal with kids.  

We had a great visit with everyone.  Julianna and Emily hit it off nicely this visit.  More cousins came later but the photography moment had passed.  We knew better than to try that again!!

Kennedy Center Family Theater

For Christmas we got tickets to the Kennedy Center Family Theater.  We were all excited and the kids LOVED IT!!!

We weren't supposed to take pictures in the theater.  I got in trouble right after I took this one so I didn't get a re-do since this one was blurry.  

 The performance was fantastic.  We all really enjoyed it.  We will definitely be looking for more shows. After the show we drove into the city and went to the Post Office Pavilion for lunch and a trip up to the top.  

 It was SOOO cold and windy up there.

 My parents took us there many times when I was little so I really enjoyed taking the kids there.  

 Awesome view from the top.

 YAY!! Fun day! 

Meet Jingle!

Meet our new pet.  Santa brought him for Julianna and she decided on the name Jingle Bell.  Jingle for short.  She feeds him every day.  I have to clean the bowl but he's easy to take care of and the kids are still enjoying him 3 weeks after Christmas which is longer than some other gifts they received.  lol

Christmas Morning 2012

 They both followed directions and waited until 7am to come get us.  They did not peek downstairs.  We made them sit here and wait while we made sure everything was in place.  Can't you see the excitement?!

Finally we let them go and they were all smiles.  Present opening began.  I didn't take too many pictures because I had the video camera rolling.  

 

Mace loved his football uniform from Santa.  He wore it all morning.

He wanted Pop Pop to play "tackle" all morning.

Lucy liked her candy cane shaped raw hide from Santa.  That kept her busy for a little while.

Ryan seemed to like his new chair.  But was much more interested in what the cousins were doing.

His helicopter flying guy from Nana and Papa was also a big hit.

He even let Uncle Chad and Ryan have a turn.

A fun surprise of the morning was finding Santa's boot prints from the soot in the fireplace. 

After all the excitement was over and everyone went home they all crashed hard.

Everyone.  We were all in bed by 830 I think.  

Another special Christmas filled with memories.  The kids were very polite about their gifts and seemed  grateful for what they received.  I'm always bracing myself for a last minute gift request but this Christmas was all good.  Thank you to all our family and friends that had such special gifts for us and the kids.  

Santa Came

 Julianna made us promise that the fire place would not be hot when it was time for Santa to come.  We kept our promise and it looks like Santa was just fine.

 Julianna wrote Santa this "hilarious" story.  It says "Santa flew as fast as he can and my elf was watching Santa when he was delivering the presints and my while family was a sleeping.  And Santa rushed back to Miss Clos and Miss Clos sead "Santa sead he wood be back at 7:30.  And he was back right when she was done saying that.  the end."  

We need to work on sentence structure.  But who am I kidding. I am no writer. 

Lucy was the first to find her present.  She sat right on it and was happy as could be.  I told her to get her rest because once the kids got up we were all in trouble.  

Christmas Eve Festivities

 Julianna's choir sang at one of our Christmas Eve services at church.  They did a great job as always.

 "This little light of mine."

 We tried to get a good pic of Ryan but he kept sticking his tongue out at me!!  Stinker!

 They sure love their little cousin.

Cuties.  Julianna had changed into ballet dress up clothes.  Mason was in his astronaut costume.  And Ryan was wearing his Christmas best still from church.  Let's pretend he's dressed as a Christmas elf.  ;)

 Before bed we had to put out the cookies and milk.  Lucy wanted to taste test them. 

 We are ready to tuck the kids in bed and wait for Santa.  They were pretty excited.  It was hard to fall asleep.  

 NeeNee and PopPop spent the night with us and that made it even more exciting for the kids.  

 Awe, NeeNee and her Sweetie Pie.