Christmas 2011 Revisited

We had fifteen people at our house opening gifts after church on Christmas.  Good golly, Miss Molly.  Fifteen people.  Our family room looked like the North Pole and mall had exploded.

The weeks leading up to Christmas, we tried, really we did, to give our kids a solid foundation on the true meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate it.  They understood that it's not their birthday, but Jesus'.  However, on Christmas morning, this is what we woke up to:

Four out of the five practically foaming at the mouth to get downstairs.

After the kids had gone to sleep on Christmas Eve, I put a crepe

paper barricade across the doorway so they couldn't sneak

out and discover gifts without us.  Plus, it's just darn fun to run through and pretend

you're winning the gold medal at the Olympics.

After an amazing service at church (oh, so lovely to get grounded in the Word any morning, but especially Christmas morning), the gift opening commenced!

Jack's first Christmas...  He got to sit on Uncle Aaron's sweetie Nicole's lap

and figure out how to open gifts.  He preferred taking a nap.

I preferred him taking a nap, as well.

Then there was the gift that made me jump across the ocean of gifts onto Paco's

lap.  I didn't realize the uh, awkward placement of his hand

until I saw the picture.  I also now see the look on my

mother's face.  Hee, hee.  Oops.

(Almost forgot.  He had a hard drive of ours restored. It had

crashed completely with all of our digital pictures from

our honeymoon all the way up until right after Liv was born.

Seriously, the most romantic gift ever.)

A moment of relative peace in the midst of chaos.

We were completely surrounded by gifts and people.

Homerun, Uncle Aaron!  Judah is now

"Sup-ah Judah!"

There's even a big "J" on the back.

(Perfect for Jack in a couple of years.)

The aftermath with all of their loot.

Good gracious, our families love our kids.

And then there was the food.  Oh heavens, the food.  I will be sharing what we devoured on our cooking blog, Smoochin' in the Kitchen.  Lots of new recipes, some old favorites.

I hope your Christmas was a blessed as ours!  Boy, did we ever sleep in heavenly peace that night!