Merry Christmas!

Another Christmas has come and gone. I look at these pictures and videos and can't help but wonder how this holiday season will change in the years to come. Mark and I were talking about how these are the golden years of Christmas, when it is "super fun" because the kids are young enough to still believe in the "magic" and their excitement is just awesome. It's a small window of time and once again, I feel myself wishing I could stop the clock.

Christmas day was amazing and relaxing and fun. After the stress of preparation for over a month, it was so nice to just sit back and enjoy the day, and witness our own family traditions start to take shape.

We took the kids to 5:00 Mass on Christmas Eve and as I suspected, Maddie was not going to make it through the whole thing. About 15 minutes into the service, Maddie and I left in hopes that Daddy and Jacob could at least enjoy the rest of the message. When we all got home that night, we let Jacob and Maddie open a few of their gifts from friends and family.

I love this next series of pictures. Jacob has a collection of the stuffed characters from the Toy Story movie. When he opened "Ham" (from Grandma and Grandpa), I couldn't believe his excitement!! Look at his face!





Maddie got an awesome UT shirt that said "Texas cheerleader in training". Mommy loved it!!



This is how the house looked after Santa delivered all of his gifts. :)



On Christmas morning, we had to wake Jacob up! This is very rare folks. He's usually up before the crack of dawn every morning. Last year when we were in Texas, he came running down the stairs at 6:15 in the morning, before his clock had turned green (letting him know he can get out of bed). I was expecting more of the same this year but this kid wanted to sleep! Maddie, however, was up at 6 am so we decided to wake Jacob up too. This was his "waking up" face.



You can tell he's not really jumping out of bed to see what Santa brought him!



Still taking it all in.





Maddie loves her new chair from Pottery Barn Kids that Nanny and Papa bought her! She's always loved sitting in Jacob's so we are excited she has one of her own.



Thank you also to Nanny and Papa for Jacob's new Leapster Explorer!



Maddie and her new kitchen appliances from Santa



This picture cracks me up because Maddie has a piece of wrapping paper that she was pretending to blow her nose in. It's true what they say -- the little ones are more excited about the paper and boxes!



Sweet girl and her new princess toy



And all she wanted to do was play with our camera



But she did love the Dora dollhouse



As did Jacob!



But the "Rocket Mater and Lightning McQueen" were huge hits with him





She actually doesn't do much "sitting" in her new chair



One of my funny gifts to Mark. His friends refer to him as "Captain America" so when I saw this shirt at Old Navy, I had to get it.



The mini trampoline is a BIG hit with both kids. Jacob calls it a "trampozine". Cracks me up every time.





This kid loves socks. So Santa brought him a set of 9 pairs of socks with Toy Story and Cars on them



Giving baby sister some adorable shirts from Gymboree that Santa brought her



The destruction after a mere hour





And the exhaustion that immediately followed :)



Merry Christmas everyone! We hope you had as great of a day as we did!