Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas Rocks!

***disclaimer: if you are not immediate family, you may (definitely will) become bored with this picture by picture re-cap of our Christmas Celebration 2009. It will not offend me if you just skim through it or skip it all together.***

I loved EVERYTHING about Christmas this year. L and T are at the perfect age to really enjoy everything that Christmas is about. The only thing I struggled with was Lauren's question, "Is Santa real?" I told her he was real as long as we believe he is. However, he is not like Jesus who knows everything about us and is always and forever in our hearts. Santa is real for only so long as we believe. (what do you think? good explanation? bad? any tips/suggestions?)

Christmas Eve we prepared some reindeer food. Cheerios mixed with Oatmeal topped with some chocolate sprinkles.
L and T took great care in preparing the reindeer food.just look at it
all bundled up and ready to sprinkle it on the lawn
Lauren's Christmas list to Santa
(l-r: butterfly net, Wii, doll, R/C race-car, princess movie DVD)
Christmas Eve dinner was Pizza!
(possibly a new tradition)
Pepperoni for the kiddos
and Thai Chicken for Matt and I.
(basically a peanut butter sauce with chicken, red pepper and cilantro)
we both thought it was not anything special so I'm not including the recipe.
(in all honesty, I recycled it and cannot find it....sorry)
It sure looks tasty though, No?
Christmas Eve Evening we left milk and a cookie out for Santa.
Santa obviously appreciated it.
Before leaving, Santa left our chimney looking as so.
Stuffed Stockings and a Wii game for the family down below.
After the kiddos went to bed Matt and I watched The Proposal. It was an okay movie but we both agreed it was over-rated. It was a chick-flick...not a bad thing but not anything "out of this world."

Christmas morning we woke up at 7:30am.
Here is Lauren after seeing her first gift left out for her.
Lauren's new Big Girl Bike
tilt your head and you can see her riding it
then it was Stocking Time
and open the Wii time
(we named it Wiisel)
the Easy Bake Oven
a bunch of cars
Car Transporter, Optimus Prime, cars, police car, and more cars to be transported
Chloe enjoyed chewing on the wrapping paper (and eating breakfast bacon.)
Tyler's favorite things...
cars and trucks!
Lauren plays with Tyler's new Leapster computer.
and also his car transporter
ahhh...the Zhu Zhu Pets
Tyler and Lauren both got one and they provided hours and hours of entertainment.
finally it was time for Christmas Brunch.
Matt made eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and toast.
They were de-lish.
Our children are spoiled however, and Lauren asked how this was different than any other breakfast Daddy makes.
Thank you Matt for all the DELICIOUS breakfasts you make us!
after breakfast we moved right on to more Christmas presents.
LEGOS!!
quick, check out one of my Christmas presents
a real handbag...not at all a diaper bag
I feel a bit bitter sweet however, with this transition (from the diaper bag to the hand bag.)
Santa brought us a whole Wii ensemble.
my new PJs
my new Christmas tea towels
(I also received a Halloween tea towel.)
Lauren plays with her markers and also her new beads.
time for some Marble Madness
getting there
complete!
Tyler loves it.

Did you know the Zhu Zhu Pets make sounds like they are going tee tee in their beds? Well they do and this is what Tyler is absolutely cracking up about. It's gross but who can't help but let go and laugh?!
and now it's Wii Time.
Lauren has spent multiple hours on the Wii tonight. I'm going to have to watch out for her.
Here is an attempt to embed a video of Lauren playing the Wii. (She LOVES the Wii....she's been playing it for a total of 2 hours so far.) Matt got a new Ipod for Christmas and he was happy to try it out and record Lauren on the Wii.


While I made dinner the three of them (Matt, Lauren and Tyler) played UNO MOO.
Lauren won and that is a good thing. If she had not won she would have cried. We need to work on the concept of "you win some and you lose some."
back to the car transporter
It was awesome to see Tyler so excited to play with all of his new toys.
I didn't take any pictures of Christmas dinner. Instead I took a picture of the recipes from Paula Dean's cookbook.
Soy-Rubbed Tenderloin
Twice Baked Potato Casserole
Brussels Sprouts with Onion and Bacon
After dinner it was time to play some more.
Time to play with the new soccor goal. T and L played with this up until I declared it too dangerous to play with in the house. Now we wait for warmer days so we can take it outside and really appreciate and take advantage of it!
Here is another pair of PJs I recieved for a gift. They are very comfortable...I'm sure I'll be wearing them for the next week or so.

who could refuse another shot of Lauren looking "oh so sweet?!"

finally we brought out the new digital camcorder.
Lauren loves her Christmas presents. We have a few videos we're getting ready to post.
Stay tuned.

1 comment:

dgentzke said...

Looks like ya'll had a great Christmas. I like your response to the Santa question, I will have to remember that. I haven't got the "direct" question yet, but I can tell it is coming. Welcome to the Wii Family!!