(Too Many) Christmas Pictures

My kids were counting down the days until Christmas for months.
Once we reached December, their morning routine was to:
1. Wake up
2. Search the house for the Elf on the Shelf, Ralphie
3. Eat a chocolate from their advent calendars
4. Remove a link from the count down chain Tyler made at school.

Then during breakfast, they would discuss how many weeks/days until Christmas.
The anticipation of Christmas was almost as exciting as Christmas Day.

We decided to try the "Elf on the Shelf" tradition this year. The boys named him Ralphie.
My kids loved it, although our elf was a little on the boring side and sometimes didn't go anywhere during the night... whoops!

We decorated Christmas trees and gingerbread men with my parents,
and Tyler made the gingerbread house on the top left (all by himself! He was really proud) while my sister-in-law, Kim, was watching him.

Chris and Lesley's gingerbread men.
Lesley's was a work of art.
Chris's was terrifying.

We struggled finding a time to take the kids to see Santa Clause this year.
We were disappointed when we missed the Santa visit at the Grand America, but my friend, Jane,
informed us when Santa was coming to a store near our house, so we took advantage of that.
(Anything to avoid going to the mall at Christmas time...)
Tyler was playing it cool when he told Santa his heart's desires.

Jaxen was thrilled. He could hardly contain his joy.

I thought for sure Madee would be terrified, but she didn't mind being handed to a stranger with a white beard one bit. Especially when he handed her a candy cane.

Ever since I can remember, my cute grandparents have put on a fantastic crab and clam chowder dinner on Christmas Eve. Now the dinner is at my parents, but they still come and they fund the festivities.
It's a tradition I love. Since not everyone likes crab, we order pizza as well.
Crab and Pizza. Yum...

There is always entertaining conversations that occur at the "kid table".

I caught Jessi and Isaac being in love for a second.

Spiderman was in attendance. 

As was the rest of our family and some friends.

Our kids got their traditional Christmas Eve Pajamas. 

We tried to get the kids to pose for a picture in their new PJ's.
The only picture I got where all the kids are looking in the general direction of the camera and sitting down... Jaxen is picking his nose. I think it really makes the picture fantastic.

Kati, David, and Daniel also got new PJ's so they got in on some pictures.

Jaxen was really not cooperating.

We threw the proud grandparents in...

Kati asked them where their finger mustaches were.
She's taught them well.

It's safe to say that Tim is rather smitten with this little girl.
After everyone was in PJ's (and thoroughly photographed),
we loaded the kids in the car.
Naturally they fell asleep during the drive and we (and when I say "we" I mean Tim)
carried them up to their beds.

Tyler left out this cute card he made for Santa at school.

One of our neighbors put out luminaries in our circle.

While we were sleeping... Santa came!

In the morning, our boys knew they weren't allowed to go downstairs until we went with them. 

They woke up first and wasted no time in waking up Madelinn (who had removed her pants at some point during the night).

They were  a little bit excited that it was FINALLY Christmas.

Madelinn knew as soon as she saw it that that chair was hers.

Investigating treasures from their stockings...

Santa brought the kids a kitchen.

The Santa we went and visited mentioned that he liked peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so that's what we left him. Tyler was excited to see he had eaten some.
(We always leave out a soda.... it's become tradition).

Opening presents...

We had two of the kids very favorite things for breakfast.

After all the presents were opened and we had eaten breakfast, we brought out one last present...

It was a Nintendo Wii. Ty was thrilled!

I was glad we wanted until the end to give it to them, because it was all they wanted to play with.

Later that day (after Madelinn had had a nap) we went over to Tim's parents house to exchange gifts.
They were supposed to come over Christmas morning, but sadly, Tim's mom fell and broke her leg on Christmas Eve!

We opened more gifts and spent some time visiting with Tim's family.

Every year, I make our Moms and my grandparents photo calendars on Shutterfly.
They love them and so do I!

Our last stop was at my parent's house for even more presents and a delicious Christmas dinner.

My Dad got Jaxen real tools.

I'm still deciding if that was a wise decision...

Overall it was a really nice Christmas and we were completely spoiled this year.

I love experiencing Christmas with my kids.
Their excitement and enthusiasm makes the craziness of the holidays totally worth it.