Christmas 2011

We had an absolutely fabulous Christmas!  Katie and Jack eagerly counted down the days with their Advent Calendars and a paper chain Katie made at school.  Every morning in December they searched until they found our little Elf on the Shelf, Elfie.   The mere mention of Elfie and behaviors in the kitchen would improve (briefly!).  We have loved our evening drives to look and Christmas lights and we did not miss an opportunity to see Santa as much as possible.  Katie loved that each time he seemed to know her name.  Katie received a video message from Santa and a letter delivered by Elfie!

Mom and Fred arrived Christmas Eve afternoon and Fred started the turkey smoking!  The smell invaded our neighborhood all afternoon and well into the evening I am sure making the neighbors envious of our Christmas dinner.  Andy and Mom took the kids to the Christmas Eve service at First United Methodist where Katie participated as an Angel in the service.  Luke tried to participate as well and there goes Nana up the aisle after him!

After the kids were tucked into bed and the Santa preparations were taken care of Mom, Fred, Andy & I sat down to a lovely Christmas (Eve) dinner!  We had smoked turkey, cornbread stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts and a cranberry & almond salad.  We rounded off the evening with chocolate pie and eggnog!

Christmas morning was fantastic.  Luke bunked in with Jack and after having a little bit of a restless night, he was woken by Jack promptly at 7 when his light came on.  We were upstairs waiting, got the boys ready to head down stairs and quickly went into Katie.  For a girl who normally does not like to be woken, she perked up quickly with the anticipation was what might be waiting down stairs.

All three were very pleasantly surprised by their Santa gifts on display at the bottom of the stairs.  Katie ask for and received a Barbie camera and was surprised by a new scooter.  Jack has been asking for a Mack truck from the Cars movie since July, but after seeing the Cars race track that Santa also brought, Mack was not as exciting.  Luke equally loved the Cars race track and both boys have spent hours since playing with it.  Luke was very unselfish this year and did not ask Santa for anything, so Santa took it upon himself to bring Luke a red car he can be pushed around the neighborhood in (and might also be good for trip to the zoo!).  All three kids love this item and have taken turns pushing and being pushed all around the house (we had a lot of rain on Christmas day) and out on the drive way.

We had a hard time getting the boys to move past the Santa gifts, so Katie helped everyone empty their stockings and we eventually made it to unwrapping presents.  But as I am typing this on the 29th of December, we still have unwrapped presents under the tree.  The kids got a little overwhelmed by the number of packages and have decided to take a break.

Uncle Adam arrived later in the morning and we got to open more presents and bring out the leftovers from the previous night's dinner!  Then we were left as a family of 5 again.  We spent the afternoon in the play room listening to the rain and going through all the new toys.  Me trying to find a place to put everything and the kids pulling it all back out!  After loading the kids up again with more turkey everyone was put to bed with visions of sugar plums (or more likely little turkey legs) dancing in their heads!

This was our best Christmas yet, each year the kids get more fun and being a family of 5 this year was fantastic as Luke got to fully participate in all the activities!

We are eagerly anticipating the arrival of Meme & Papaw on New Year's Eve when we will do Christmas all again!