Merry Christmas!!

Such a great year. We celebrated with Shane's family first on Christmas Eve. I made potato soup for dinner and then we all exchanged gifts. The kids were great...all taking turns, watching everyone open their presents and waiting patiently till their turn came around again. After gifts we let all the kids decorate cookies for Santa. A huge mess! But they loved it. I think they might have given Santa a sugar overload.

 So many gifts!

Love this face!

 We had so much fun!

 Jim and Rose Marie

 Decorating Cookies

 Cute little fingers all ready for Christmas

Cookies and milk left out for Santa. I love Natalie's note!

The next morning I was in bed, waiting for the girls to wake up. They still weren't awake by 7 so I made Shane open their doors so they'd wake up. He opens Natalie's door and then comes running back down the hall. Two seconds later Natalie comes in and says, "Who opened my door?" I told her maybe Santa did. She wasn't buying it and seriously asked me the same question at least 3 more times. Finally I looked at her and said...Natalie...it's Christmas. Then it clicked and she got very excited. Heidi was already jumping on the bed totally excited about Christmas but Natalie was just worried about her door. That pretty much sums up my girls. :)

After Shane got the Christmas lights on and turned on the music, the girls ran down the stairs to their gifts. Natalie was so excited this year because she picked out gifts for all of us at school and wrapped the gifts herself. She kept asking if she could give us our gifts even before opening her stocking! This year I really wasn't very good with taking pictures. I was just enjoying every moment and kind of forgot about my camera. I think I took three pictures and one came out blurry! :)

The girls waiting to go downstairs...taken with my iPhone :)

 Shane opening his present from Heidi

Heidi's gift from us this year. We got her a bike for her birthday this year but she has already gotten too big for it. We were going to get her the Dora Gymnastics doll that actually does gymnastics. It was all she wanted. She has been talking about it since the Olympics this past summer. I kept seeing it at the store but waited till after Thanksgiving when Shane and I go shopping together. When we went shopping it was gone. I looked online at every toy store I could think of, I got put on email lists and even checked out ebay. They were going for $100 right before Christmas. Needless to say we got her a bike instead. :) But it's a Cinderella bike and she really wanted it so I think we did okay. AND....she hasn't mentioned the Dora doll again but I figure if she does, I can buy it for her at normal price. :) 

So after we did our own Christmas, we headed over to my parents house to do Christmas there. We all stayed in our pjs and I brought over Nutella cinnamon rolls. Seriously...so amazing! Click on the link to get the recipe...it's super easy and insanely good! Before we even started the gifts, everyone was looking for Shane. In my family everyone has to be present and paying attention before someone can unwrap a present! When I looked up he was rolling in a bike...for me! Such a surprise!

I was a little surprised! But seriously...isn't this the cutest bike ever?!?! After I recovered from my shock we started in on our presents. We do this weird thing in my family where we all throw aluminum foil balls into a bucket. Whoever makes a basket gets to be the first one to open a gift. Then we go around the circle and do it again for the next round. It's so much fun! Gift opening lasts forever in my family...it's awesome!

 Heidi and Natalie with my Mom holding their new dollies that Shane's mom gave them for Christmas. They are the cutest dolls and she got them from Cracker Barrel! 

 My gift to Bub...such a perfect gift for him!

 This is the ornament that Heidi painted for my mom at the ceramic store. It's an angel that she kept painting over and over and over until I finally told her to stop. It's got so many layers of colors!

 I painted the girls feet to make Christmas trees. They turned out so cute that I framed some for my house and also gave them as gifts to both of our parents. 

 Nokie was REALLY excited to get a new Splat the Cat book. :)

 Nokie with her new baby doll and me with my Nutella cinnamon rolls. 

 This was so Heidi on Christmas morning! I think Christmas Eve was plenty for her cause she was over it by the time we got to my parents!

 Natalie got a locket from my parents for Christmas

 Heidi decided to put some bows on Nan. Makes me laugh every time I see it. :)

My mom painted me a Precious Moments nativity set for Christmas. So so cool! I love it!

After all the festivities we went home and took a nap, showered and then headed back over for dinner. Nan made her famous lasagna...the traditional Christmas dinner for our family. It was a perfect ending to a perfect Christmas!