Christmas!!!

Christmas was awesome this year! I know I say that every year, but it's true!! On Christmas Eve, we went sledding as a family during the day. That night we met Trav's family up at the cemetary to visit Rex's grave, but there was so much snow we couldn't find it! So after being there only a few minutes we went back to Shirlene's house for clam chowder, stories, chatting and great family time. 

The kids were eager to get home to open their one present on Christmas Eve.

 William went first opening his gift from Kate....(some goldfish crackers)

 Kate was next opening her gift from Will.

 A minion! It was funny because when we were shopping for Kate's present William kept saying that he wanted to find something "creepy" to give Kate. We went up and down the aisles (He muttered in the doll aisle..."This isn't creepy). He finally settled on the minion thinking that was the right amount of creepiness in her gift. Silly boy. But she did love it.

 Josh was next opening his present from Kate. (a lego set)

 Then it was Rach's turn opening a Calvin and Hobbes book from mom and dad.

 Rach was anxious to give me her gift insisting it was my first gift this year.

 New fuzzy slippers!! That was all I needed. We could have cancelled Christmas after that (according to me)

 Kate knew exactly what she wanted to give dad. We even had to order it on-line because I couldn't find it in the store.The anticipation is killing me!!....

 Paddington, the movie. Just what daddy always wanted....

 We then set cookies, milk and a carrot out for the guests coming that night.

 Someone thought he'd try to be sneaky and pretend to be Santa.

 This is what we woke to in the morning!!!

 Kate got her beloved cheese balls!

 Will loved the alligator Josh got for him.

 I was really horrible about taking pictures this year! But this is what it looked like after we opened all our stuff.

 The box/garbage piles are always so big!

 William tried to help me in the kitchen. We made a yummy turkey dinner for that night and all the grandparents came. It was a great night!

 The rest of the day was spent playing with all that great stuff we got.

 Thanks Santa!

My favorite part of the day was telling the kids our big news!! (we did take a video of it, but apparently we forgot to take pictures...oh well). They are all very excited to be adding another sibling to the mix!!

We decided to surprise the grandparents too. So that night for dinner we had Rachel say the prayer and in the prayer she threw in, "Please bless mommy and the baby that they will both be healthy." I could feel eyes opening in surprise but tried to keep a calm, closed-eye face until the prayer was over. They were SO surprised and it was a fun way to announce to them to have the kids in on it.

Merry Christmas!!