Christmas Day 2011

They awoke to a wonderland of presents under the tree!

Aaron just kept saying "Oooooo!"

We enjoyed lunch and a Happy Birthday Jesus cupcake at my moms.
And then in true tradition, I was so wiped out by the end of the day
that I forgot to take pictures for dinner at
the Byingtons. Yep... that's 6 years in a row!
One of these years I'll get my Christmas act together. :)

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

This year, we spent Christmas Eve lunch at my mom's.
The highlight of the day was making a gingerbread
house with Aunt Isabelle and Uncle Drew,
visiting from California! Though Drew's amazing steaks
also top the list in my book!

We headed to our church in the evening
for Christmas Eve Service with Mike's mom and Laura.

What did I want for Christmas... just a family picture by the tree at church.

About 100 shots later, we had success!

After church we all headed out for out traditional Christmas
Eve pizza dinner, and then straight home for the Christmas Story.

Of course, Mike and I enjoyed setting up the tree and
gifts after the kids went to sleep and watched A Christmas Story!
Wouldn't feel like Christmas without it!

Here's the loot... pre-unwrapping madness!

Good memories

Seeing Nana and her class at the Christmas concert
Kelsey's preschool attended! She even got to sit in front of us!
What a treat!

Passing those winter days at home!

Parade of the Magi at Kelsey's school!
(Again, Mary was so sweet and took pictures for me!!!)

We spent a lot of December sick, but still managed to make
a lot of great holiday memories!

Decorating for Christmas

This was the last time there were ornaments at the
bottom of the tree this year. Three days in there was a distinct
line of ornaments about 4 feet up the
tree... out of reach of our monkey boy!

The kids were beside themselves with excitement
to see the tree go up!

Kelsey remembered putting the star up with Mike
last year and she begged and begged to do it again!

Success!

Christmas Trains and Legos

At the beginning of December, we met Mike's dad and
Elvira in the city to see the Christmas trains at
the Botanical Gardens and to visit the Lego museum.

The displays were amazing! Aaron, our little train guru, was mesmerized.

He had a crazy smile plastered on his face almost the whole time we were there!

After the trains, we headed to the Lego museum.
Sadly, it was closing early for a wedding,
but the kids still had a little time to build!

Kelsey even had time to add her creation to the wall in the museum!

It was a fun holiday-ish day, and definitely
not something we've ever done before!