Christmas Morning

Don't you love how I am able to get all these Christmas updates posted in all my spare time? Haha. Right now I am sitting in the middle of what looks like a hurricane blew through my house...with lots of little Elmo and Veggie Tale characters and such staring at me, but I am OK with it right now. I got a laptop from Santa, so it's nice to be able to sit and rest with my feet up while using the computer, and I would rather be relaxing than cleaning tonight...
While going through my pics, I realized that I don't have any pics from Christmas afternoon/night, only morning. But hey, I even impressed myself with how many pictures I (we) took with the big camera. The first ones are my favorite, when Knox is walking out of his room with his Elmo slippers and sleepy eyes and seeing that Santa came. He also looks a little weirded out that I am standing there flashing the camera in his face so bright and early...

We took a little break so we could go outside and see if Santa left Knox anything out there...

Unfortunately, it was sooo stinking windy that the other bows blew off, so I had to sneak out and put one up real quick before we all went out...

He loved loved loved it! BUT...he only stayed on it for about 3 minutes due to freezing cold weather and a cold that he has had. And because the weather hasn't changed much, he hasn't been on it since :(.

Noise makers from his stocking. What was I thinking?

 He tries to blow on his flute, but just makes noise with his mouth. He doesn't quite grasp the blowing concept yet. Super funny!

Elmo...his new favorite

Future goalie?

I think maybe he likes Elmo so much because he has red hair, too? :)

Blowing Jesus some birthday kisses!

And FINALLY...time to EAT!

Alrighty...that about does it for Christmas posts. This year was so fun and special to watch Knox's reaction to everything. He had such a fun time with family and opening gifts, but we know that's not what's important. Yes, it is definitely a blessing, but the real gift is what happened on the cross, and I pray that we would be able to clearly communicate and model that to all of our children. We are already looking forward to Christmas 2011 with G-Baby in the picture!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve night we always celebrate Christmas with Wawa, and this year we celebrated with dad Christmas Eve morning as well. It was a busy, busy day...but Foxie rolled with it. My brother was in town with his family, so that's always a treat. My dad and brother are both definitely comedians, and love to pick on me. I must have a bullseye on my back because I am ALWAYS the one catching heat. Please note the first picture. The boys know that I am a little self conscious about the size factor these days, and when I walked in to the house, this is how they greeted me. I had no other option but to roll with it...

 We quickly started the gift opening process since there were many eager little ones present. All the kids played Santa, which makes me feel super old. 

 As usual, Knox with sister. These 2 are TIGHT.

 G-Baby's first gift from Papa. Alabama sippy. Did we expect anything else?

 A man after my own heart...cleaning whenever and wherever he can.

  

 My nieces got the "Just Dance" game for Wii. It's amazing. My nephew loved it and was actually incredible at it! So surprising because he is such a tough athlete. I'm pretty sure he gets it from me...

 And yes...I had to pop and shake it myself.

Getting the hang of opening presents...

Pushing the shopping cart around the house like a mad man! One of his favorite toys for some reason??

 Family shot...some people were ready for the pic...some people weren't. You snooze, you lose. 

 If you didn't know already, I'm a really good singer...

 G-Baby got some cute dresses :)

After we finished celebrating all day with different sides of the family, Lee and I took Foxie home so we could celebrate with our little family and continue some of our own traditions. Here we are giving Fox some new Christmas Pj's. Yes, they are wrapped in a wine bag. No, we did not give him a bottle of wine.

 And because Lee tried to read The Christmas Story to Knox 1,000 times while he ran through the entire house, we had to cage the little sucker...

This picture cracks me up! Lee was being so serious and Knox was super confused as to what was going on...

He got a little upset that he was contained, so I hopped in there to try and cheer him up. I MAY have messed with him and made some "Foxie faces" while I was in there.

But then I apologized and he forgave me.

And here is a picture of what's to come of our future. My sweet hubs loves to wait as long as possible to get things completed, so I can see us staying awake many a Christmas Eve getting things put together for the kids. Good thing I love this man to death!

We decided on a medium sized trampoline that can hold 2 kids up to age 8 or 9. Well, if it can hold me, then I am sure it is safe enough for Foxie for a while :)...

So very blessed and thankful for all the family that we have in our lives. We are loved so much by each and every person in our family, and we were thrilled to be able to see them all over Christmas. 

What an amazing gift that the Lord sent His son into the world to live a perfect life and die a perfect death so that we might have the opportunity to spend eternity with Him in heaven. I long for the day to meet Him face to face, but until that day comes I think I will enjoy all the abundant blessings He has given me here on Earth. 

Back later for a Christmas Day post...