Merry Christmas!

I think I must have made someone, somewhere very happy along the lines, because at 27 years old, I'm pretty sure I just had the very best Christmas of my life--and that's saying something, because my Christmases have regularly been very good.

Merry Christmas and thank you to my beautiful little babies and spectacular husband--I love you all more than I can possibly say :)

Mmm...homemade marshmallows...

What?! So the air is drier in eastern Washington. It leads to static.

Poor Isaac, in Walla Walla last weekend!

He's been in a sugar/present coma for over a week now. Poor little Christmas zombie :)

Ava and Danny, last weekend, relaxing after a hard day of eating, running in the park, and watching cartoons. Notice Zeus in the background...

Little old man, in his rocking chair by the fire!

It has to be counted as a miracle when two 2-year-olds, a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old ALL sit still and look cute for a picture...

Think they're excited?! Opening presents from Great-grandma and Great-papa, at Brenda and Tom's.

Grandma is just as excited though :) Maybe even more excited.

Zellie is super-stoked to be the proud owner of the Cinderella soundtrack!

The aftermath. I...don't have words for this right now! At least my Grandma has toned it down. That's right, this is minimal compared to what living rooms looked like during my childhood.

The boys, wrapping presents for Zeus, Chuck and Oscar. Funny, quick story: for the second time, I came out of Petco with an extra toy in my bag. Paid for, but definitely not needed, especially when it's a $10 rubber squeaky one. That's what I get for letting them both push around those little carts.

And yes, the animals unwrap their own presents.

The night of the 23rd. In keeping with part of Chris' family traditions, we open all presents, except for what Santa brings, of course (my family tradition that I won't let go!), on Christmas Eve, after dinner.

 

 Opening presents from Nana on Christmas Eve. Brenda, Tom and Zellie were there, too, but I was naughty and didn't take many pictures. But, oooohhh, the food, let me digress from pics for a second: Brenda made Tammy's black bean salsa, smoked salmon dip and little smoky crescent rolls; Mom made crab quiche and spanakopita; I made grandma's chicken wings, shrimp/wasabi/cream cheese/crackers, and blackened chicken pizza. We didn't even eat half of it, but it was wonderful to cook with Mom and Brenda again, and I have been eating leftovers all day today. And will be still tomorrow. Love it. For the record, I ate Brenda's leftovers the fastest :)

Danny's new fishing pole! I think I may harass Chris to do a post on their first fishing trip (in the works--Chris has a 5-day stretch of work, so it'll be a week or so, poor Noodle!).

Opening Up, the Disney movie. I don't normally like to buy movies, as I try to not watch much TV with the kids--but they loved this movie, and so did I. Isaac talks about Kevin, Dug, and Russell all the time. I think we'll be watching it tomorrow, at some point.

Inundated with new books! Yes! These two happen to be from Chris' grandparents, Hella and Edelhard,, in Germany. I think I may start up the Rosetta stone program again, just so I can read these myself. These two books are apparently Dr. Seuss-ish popular in Germany (though a bit more macabre...). The books also came with CD's, which was perfect, b/c the boys got a CD player from my Grandma.

Isaac, forever eating chocolate. This bar came from the Germany package, and Isaac went straight for it. This morning (the 25th), we hadn't heard from Isaac for awhile--Chris found him under Danny's bed, with a bogarted Toblerone bar. The kid screamed, an I-cracked-my-skull type of scream, when Chris took it from him.

 

Proof that Chris was there. Plus it's kinda funny that Danny has his head in his new fishing net. Rest assured, it's now out in the garage, with his tackle box.

Santa came! Christmas morning. The bear things are pseudo-sleds. When I encouraged Danny to ask Santa for a sled, I had no idea how expensive and hard to find real sleds and toboggans are...

...but they like 'em. Gotta love a 2- and 4-year-old for being so forgiving :)

Chris and Isaac, jamming on the harmonica.

Somebody's doggy was being very naughty on Christmas morning...

Oscar has, thus far, used the sleds as much as Danny and Isaac.

Danny helping me make cinnamon rolls this afternoon, for Chris to take to work. I feel kinda bad, I heard about someone making cinnamon rolls and taking them to their local firehouse, for the on-call firemen, and said aloud how I should do that, and Chris replied, "Um, how about your local ER?" Oh, yeah. They have families that they have to ditch on Christmas, too. Man I'm a jerk. So we made cinnamon rolls for Chris to take to work, instead, complete with a Santa and tree drawing by Danny.

Danny has been playing Lego's practically non-stop. Definitely one plastic toy that I can get behind. Please don't let me down Lego! I guess that seizure-inducing trip to Toys R'Us was worth it.

And my day ended with a late night phone call from Tracey. A perfect way to end Christmas, drinking wine with my BFF (excuse the Paris Hilton-speak), as she turns 28.

I hope every Christmas turns out like this :)