Christmas

 Let the fun began! 

Christmas Eve we hosted my Mom, my Dad, my brother Mike & my sister Julie for a very nice dinner (that I made entirely on my own--yay for growing up!), gift exchange and adorable desserts in fun Christmasy shapes made by my Momma (sorry, no pictures of food! I was too busy!!).

My Mom & Dad joined us for our church's Christmas Eve service, it was very special having them be apart of our wonderful church family for a few hours.  It was a beautiful candlelit service & I'm so glad we went.  Then we came home to food & gifts.  The girls' favorite gift was their treasure chest full of fun costumes!!  Such a great idea for toddlers!! 

 Photo courtesy from Ellie's view  :) 

Baby Hunter's First Christmas?!

 Aaron's busy scratching off the annual Christmas Tradition of receiving Lottery Tickets!!!

 My Beautiful Momma  :) 

Oh How I Love Thee!

Thank you Tom & Autumn for the funny little animal furballs!!!

Wish you guys were here!

Then Christmas morning came...

We don't put any emphasis on "Santa" in our home, as far as our girls are concerned they know Christmas is about Baby Jesus' Birth and "Santa" is simply a nice decoration at Christmas time.  Much like Frosty the snowman is.

However, we have taught them the real story about St. Nicholas.  Just like I grew up, we have our girls put their shoes out on December 5th & "St. Nicholas" comes to fill them with goodies. 

The difference in this excitement versus Santa coming on Christmas morning is that there is no expectation for "being good" leading up to this day.  Let's be honest...the idea of Santa coming "only if you're good" has become a bad parenting tool and in my opinion a terrible way to teach about Christ's Love & Grace.  But all this is another topic for another day...

Anyway...so, we do say that St. Nicholas fills their stockings...although we're not strict on it, and I'm sure if Audrey asked if I bought something I'd just tell her yes.

So Christmas mornings comes and it was the cutest most abrupt way I've ever woken up.

Sweet little Audrey came RUNNING into our room, slamming the door wide open which banged into the wall and she comes in yelling

"Mommy!!! MOMMY!!  Saint Nicholas came & filled up my stocking!!  Come Look!!  Come Look!!"

haha....woah.  Well Goodmorning! :) I'm awake!

So the girls & I got up with the darkness and opened up part of the stockings, until Daddy got up too.

 New Water bottles!  Wahoooo!  :)

 And then...while it was still dark outside the girls insisted on playing dress-up :)

 Oh how I love having girls.  They are the best :)

 Daddy's awake....time for a few more gifts!  (Notice the different outfit changes)

Then Christmas Day we went out to Aaron's parents house!  Always a fun chaotic time with the cousins running around, so I didn't take too many pictures!  Plus, I think all the preparations I did and being on my feet a lot the previous day made my body totally worn out.  I, unfortunately, did a LOTof visiting from the couch.  My body was sore all over...oh the joy of the end stages of pregnancy :)

Here's Ellie Belle, my beautiful darling little 2-year-old.

My how she has grown up! Doesn't she look darling in her little Christmas dress!!

Poor little Sawyer (1yr) wasn't feeling so great, so he did a lot of cuddleing. 

Here he is snuggling up with Grandpa Tom :)

Oh the busyness of Christmas is always so fun and yet it's always over so much quicker than I'm expecting!  Time to wait another year!

Merry Christmas To All!