Merry Christmas!!

Obviously a little late, but whatever. :-)

We had a wonderful Christmas! Our church's Advent pageant was the Sunday before Christmas - Natalie was Mary this year - and had a beautiful costume handmade by Grandma. All the kids did a great job! Natalie brought down the house at one point - she was supposed to climb on the back of large, stuffed horse (supposed to be the donkey that Mary rode to Bethlehem) - she had been been pretty reserved up until that point... All of a sudden, she leapt up in the air, tucked her legs up, and landed square on the back of the horse/donkey - so funny - you can see the video here - just scroll down a bit until you see the video - it is embedded in our church's homepage. Full screen viewing is best.

Christmas Eve was a whirlwind of cooking/baking, church at 4, then we went to Mitz and Pops' for dinner. Mitz made a delicious salad and lasagna, and Santa called Natalie (M&P arranged for their neighbor to call and play Santa) - Natalie was wide-eyed. Then Pops took the kids out back to look for Santa's sleigh. Mitz went out front and rang the sleigh bells she hangs on her door every year - I heard Natalie shout "That's Santa! I hear his sleigh bells!". She came running in, Mitz showed her the bells and told her that they must have fallen from Santa's sleigh - Natalie was amazed. Then Mitz and Pops gave the kids a special present - a Polar Express train set - the kids love it! We're going to bring it out every Christmas, but put it away during the year so it doesn't get broken. Once that was opened, Oliver turned around and started ripping the paper off one of Natalie's other presents. Whoops!

Headed home. Had the kids hang stockings, get the final chocolates out of their Advent calendars. I put O to bed, Jon put Natalie to bed. Jon was out of her room first - usually I'm out of O's before Jon finishes with Natalie. Apparently she told him "I want The Night Before Christmas because it is short. Frosty is short too, that's OK. And I want no screwing around. No drawing on my back, no snuggling, get out so I can go to sleep". LOL We finished wrapping presents, cleaned the house, and got to bed way too late.

Christmas day was awesome as well. Natalie was up at about 6:20, but waited patiently upstairs until Oliver awoke at 7, and also for Mitz and Pops to arrive at the same time. We opened presents - the kids were so cute. Oliver was just stomping around all over the place with a lollipop. One of his gifts was a plush Dora backpack, with the Map - and he put it on and started singing the Map and Backpack songs. Mitz and Pops stayed for breakfast, then left to meet Jamie and Mike back at their house. They came back around 1:30 with Mike and Jamie. My friend Sylvia and her family joined us again this year, so we had 12 total! Dinner was prime rib, au jus, horseradish cream sauce, Caesar salad, Duchess potatoes, green bean casserole (scratch, not the Campbell's version), rolls. Dessert was Eggnog Bundt cake, and Sylvia brought a Red Velvet cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory that was to.die.for.

Some of the highlights from Christmas day -

Jon found Oliver with a fistful of candy in each hand - one had chocolate, the other candy cane. He said O was alternating cramming gobs of candy in his mouth, drooling everywhere - then he looked at Jon, reached in his mouth and pulled out an intact candy cane wrapper. And laughed.

Oliver received a toy dump truck that plays music, says a few things, and moves. He was chasing a couple of Natalie's Zhu Zhu pets around the house with it.

Mitz gave Natalie a small thing of hand sanitizer in her stocking. Natalie was running around the house telling me how she was going to have everyone use it before dinner, and "I can't believe Mitz got me hand sanitizer - it was JUST WHAT I WANTED". Who knew?! :-)

And of course, after all the present opening orgy was finished, Natalie asked "Is there more?". LOL