Christmas Day

Before Spring is upon us, I figure I should wrap up Christmas, 2014.  We went to a lovely, child friendly Christmas Eve service at the church where Squirt goes to preschool and went home for chili and salad afterward.  Mom and Dad were in town through that week.  Its become tradition that the kids open one gift on Christmas Eve.  They might be figuring out that the gift is always pajamas. Always will be. Sorry guys.  Although they do still find excitement and joy in PJ's.  This year was snug fitting matching stripes from Hannah Anderson.  Darling.  Tim might have disagreed.

It's also tradition that we sprinkle reindeer dust and glitter on the driveway so Santa's deer friends can find us and satisfy themselves with a midnight snack while Santa does his important business inside.

 Priceless.  

In the morning, we were blessed with a 7:00am wake up, which isn't even common on a typical day. They immediately headed to our new fairy garden and were pleasantly surprised with the arrival of two fairies.  One was Dude's ninja turtle tooth fairy, which he naturally assumed would set up shop in these new digs.  My dad and I found a turtle to fit the mold.  Phew.

Santa fills our stockings with small but uber exciting tokens of fun.  We chose to keep it simple with three gifts per kid:  something to wear, something to read, and something to play with.  Pretty sure we'll stick with that moving forward.

Grandma V and Grandpa Marc blessed Squirt with a new, grown up kitchen this year.  She hasn't stepped away from that spot for the past two weeks.  

 Dude got his wish, a hanging, cozy chair for his bedroom.  Thanks Grandma and Marc!

 What do you get for 2 parents about to begin life as retirees?  Why a 3,000 piece puzzle and a book about retirement of course.

 Squirt became a mini-mom last Christmas when Nana and Papa gave her Baby Stella.  This year, she received Stella's twin brother, now named Fella.  Fella has some work to do in becoming as "loved and weathered" as his sister is.  

Dude told me all December long that he would only wear short and a t-shirt to bed until I got him footies.  He won.  I got tired of watching his cold little self get into bed every night.  He believes he is a Tiger in real life, so these PJ's fit his mold.  

We had a lovely, relaxing morning of bagels, lox, oatmeal casserole, and gifts, invited our friends Pete and Diane over for crab legs, steak, and prime rib Christmas dinner and then headed over to our old neighbor's new house for drinks and dessert.  We had cake and sang Happy Birthday to a little babe named Jesus while we were there, capping off an awesome day.  Hard to believe the season is over.