Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Christmas 2012 will go down as one of the best for our family. Everything about it was perfect! If I could go back & experience it again, I would do it in a heartbeat. The kids were at perfect ages for enjoying everything about the holiday. Here's a brief recap of everything we did:

On the Sunday before Christmas, we did our annual tradition of opening an early present...

The kids always get so excited to open a present early that they almost forget their early present is always church clothes.  I guess a present is still a present, even if it is just church clothes...

Here they all are--ready to go to church in their festive clothes.  Isn't Vivvie's dress so stinkin' cute?  It had a little petticoat under it so when she sat down, it ballooned up around her...

Mike & I finally finished wrapping presents on the morning of Christmas Eve.  Next year, I swear I'll be totally ready for Christmas by December 15th--but I'm pretty sure I said that last year, and the year before.  Maybe one of these years, I'll actually do it.  Anyway, after wrapping the last present, I took a picture of the tree and all the presents in all their glory before they were ripped to smithereens that night & the next morning...

That afternoon, we headed over to my parents' house for the annual Christmas Eve party.  We broke from tradition this year & played Bingo before dinner, instead of after.  We decided we actually liked it this way better.  It helped the evening not feel so rushed.  For those of you that don't know, we play Bingo every Christmas Eve for silly little presents.  This is a tradition that my Grandma started when I was probably around Connor's age, and we've done it every year since.  Here's all the Bingo-playing action...

Sweet little Viv & Ella.  These girls have to stick together in this family full of boys...

By the way, we're adding another little boy to this family too!  I can finally announce that my sister, Kristin, is pregnant!  Baby Landon is due June 1st & we're super excited to welcome him to the family!  You can see her cute little preggo belly in the picture below of the girls next to the food right before dinner started.  I'm not sure why Ashlee isn't in this picture.  She was there, but wasn't in this picture for some reason...

After dinner, it was time for the annual Christmas talent show.  My Grandma also started this tradition.  Aiden & Gavin sung "Frosty the Snowman" and did actions as well...

Cohen sang "Pretty Dolls" (a song from his Preschool Christmas Program) and "Jingle Bells..."

Vivvie (along with Ella, although she's not in this picture) danced to some Christmas songs.  It was so cute & funny to watch them perform & eat up all the attention...

And Connor made up his own song called "The 12 Days of Minecraft."  He used the tune of "The 12 Days of Christmas," but made up his own words to go along with his favorite computer game, Minecraft.  It was very creative.  I didn't get any pictures of it because I ran out of space on my memory stick, but Mike recorded it.  Then Ashlee, Kristin & I finished the program with our annual singing of "Jing Jing-a-Ling."  Not sure when this tradition started, but my Mom makes us do it every year.  It's quite lovely--I sing in my "baby voice," Ashlee sings in her "opera voice," and Kristin sings in her "British monotone voice."  As I'm sure you can imagine, it was pure awesomeness!

I don't have any other picture of the night because my stick was full, but we opened presents & then finished off the night with the reading of the Christmas story from Luke 2.  After that, we headed home to go to bed before Santa came.

The next morning, the boys woke up about 7:45.  Viv was still asleep, but the boys were about to explode from all the excitement, so we let them loose to see what Santa had brought them without their sister.  Here's the annual picture of them getting their first glimpse of their Santa presents from the bridge...

Aiden was overjoyed to find out that he had--in fact--made it on to the nice list (just barely) and Santa had brought him his coveted Nintendo 3DS.  He was so overjoyed that he collapsed onto the chair ottoman...

Cohen also made it on the nice list!  Santa brought him the Imaginext Castle he had been hoping for, plus the Ogre, Dragon & Cannonball Launchers that go along with it...

And Connor got the Ninjago Lego set he had been hoping for...

A few minutes later, all the commotion woke Princess Viv up.  She didn't know what to think when she saw that Santa had brought her a dollhouse...

Then it was time to go through the stockings to see what little presents, candy & fruit Santa had left in there.  Aiden was pretty excited about his grapefruit & orange...

But, he was still way more excited about that 3DS.  He wouldn't let it out of his hands...

Vivvie couldn't be bothered with looking in her stocking.  She just wanted to play with her dollhouse...

Until she realized there was candy in the stocking.  Yep, she is totally my daughter...

Next we moved on to opening presents.  Get ready for picture overload...

As you can tell, this was a common pose for Aiden all morning long.  He did this anytime he opened any present that had to do with his 3DS...

Vivvie got the cute Little People Princess set, as well as the castle & a couple carriages.  She loves those things & played with them and her dollhouse the rest of the morning...

Here I am with some of my gifts, and my cute little shadow...

And Mike with one of his gifts...

Oh wait--the box is empty!  That's because Mike had already taken his gift out of the box & had been using it for several days before Christmas.  Little stinker...

The boys got a big joint present like they usually do each year.  This time, it was the new Skylanders Giants game...

Plus, a bunch of figures for it as well.  They were super excited...

Vivvie was just excited about all her new little dolls & princesses...

I told you she played with them for the rest of the morning...

I love this picture!  Such happiness...

After that, we ate breakfast, got dressed & headed back over to Nana & Poppy's house to eat all the yummy leftovers from the night before & hang out for the afternoon.  I forgot my camera, so I didn't get any pictures--but we had a blast.  We had fun playing games, watching movies & just hanging out.  Mike's parents met up with us there as well.  We had a great time all being together.

That evening, we headed back to our house along with Nana & Poppy and Grandma & Grandpa so that they could see everything the kids got earlier that morning.  Grandma & Grandpa also passed out their gifts & the kids had a blast opening even more presents.  As if they needed any more...

Then everyone left & our little family just hung out for the rest of the night.

It really was a perfect Christmas!  I loved every single second of it.  I love this time of year.  I'm so grateful for my cute little family & for how much happiness they bring into my life.  And, I'm especially grateful for that little baby in a manger who lived a perfect life to be an example to all of us & then died so that we could return to live with Him & our Heavenly Father.  Hope all of you had a Merry Christmas as well!  --Lindsay