December 25

Merry Christmas!

We celebrated with my family on Christmas Eve, and I failed miserably by forgetting my camera at home. At one point, it was in my diaper bag, and then I moved it so that I wouldn't forget it, and... yeah. But we had a great time!

I did remember my camera on Christmas morning, though.

Chris and I stayed up until 1:30 assembling Christmas gifts, and Caleb woke up promptly at 5:30 am, not because he was excited, but because that's just what he does. Luckily, we lured him into our bed and were able to steal another two hours of sleep while he snuggled/played/talked in between us. When Daisy woke up at 7:30 (a Christmas miracle!), we groggily stumbled in to open presents.

The first thing Caleb saw was this amazing train table (a hand-me-down from Chris' super-generous cousin and his family!). Caleb's response? "Wow! Fabulous!" It was pretty sweet.

Before we opened gifts, we snagged one family photo. Chris and I are getting a lot of mileage out of our family Christmas jammies! I love that Caleb's old ones fit Daisy this year;  I just wish I'd thought to buy them in bigger sizes so that the whole family could match every year. 

(FYI: we completely realize how nerdy this is, but isn't that half the fun?)

Then we got to work opening presents. In case you're wondering, that green smudge on Caleb's cheek is from the dry erase markers that came with the easel that I stayed up late assembling for him. They broke that   bad boy in right away!

Daisy loved her new cape, and  took off flying in it right away.

(I swear I fixed the lighting in these pictures on Photoshop, but it doesn't seem to have saved. I'm too lazy to go back and re-do it. Sorry.)

Both kids got rain boots with matching umbrellas - a big hit.

I was surprised that Daisy really loved this little Change-a-Tune piano that was a MOPS hand-me-down. She started singing and playing right away!

I made a yummy egg casserole for breakfast, but Caleb spied these cupcakes left over from our Christmas Eve celebration and asked if he and Daisy could have them for breakfast. Since Christmas comes but once a year, and it is the most important birthday of the year (and the cupcakes were made with beans and honey, rather than flour and sugar), I said yes. 

We stuck a candle in one and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.

Someone certainly enjoyed her cupcake (and the stickers that were in her stocking!)

After breakfast, more playing. I think it will take a while before Daisy learns to play with the train set and not destroy it.

Meanwhile, Caleb regaled us with his versions of "Jingle Bells" and "Frosty the Snowman" on his new, *real* microphone.

And my husband was charmingly geeky in his jammies. Love him, especially because he's doing cooking of some sort. What a good man.

After some really fantastic naps for the whole family, we headed over to Chris' family's house for Christmas, take 3.

I'm including this photo so that you can see:

Daisy and her apple, which she refused to let go.

Her sweet little leggings.

How cute Sally and Grace are.

Two of Grace's three Chihuahuas (Coco is next to Daisy, and you can just see Izzy's little ears on the right of the frame).

The embarrassing amount of gifts. Dear family: this was so much fun, but maybe we should scale back next year?

Caleb was excited to open gifts with Grandmother, at one point even offering to help her open her gifts (in the politest way possible).

After all of the hubbub was over, Sally opened up two of her gifts: Halloween wigs. The kids were entranced, and immediately wanted turns.

Daisy rocked the blue wig - doesn't she look like a supermodel in the making?

Caleb wore the hot pink wig, which set off the raw redness underneath his poor little nose. I hope he gets over his cold quickly!

This is what I love about this family. I've yet to meet another family that embraces fun and silliness the way they do. Love you guys!