Merry Christmas!

Now that the craziness has settled, I have a few minutes to post. Our first Christmas in our new house was a success!

Since my Mom is in Germany (miss you Mom!), we had Christmas dinner at our house. I made the homemade mashed potatoes and green bean casserole and a pumpkin pie. Luckily, we pulled it off! Dan, Deanna, her boyfriend Matt and Devin's Mom Debbie came over and we had quite a good feast. Even Colin made a big nasty mess with his meal (I love that he is eating adult foods now, although we still do the baby jars when I get lazy or don't have anything appropriate for him).

(bad picture of a good dinner)

Lily woke us up on 5 am on Christmas morning, reading to check out the goods. Devin had good foresight and erected a baby gate at the top of the stairs. We brought her into our room while we tried to squeeze in the last vestiges of sleep before Devin's family arrived

Christmas morning, while the kids played with their Santa gifts, we mad a good breakfast of muffins, biscuits, bacon, eggs and ham. Colin really likes scrambled eggs (although it was really nasty to watch him eat them).

Despite the abundance of toys, Colin chose to stick with his tried and true favorite -- car keys. He also really liked the tv remote :)

Lily's big gift from Santa (other than the art easel) was her very own Waldorf doll. She's small and beautiful and made from all natural materials and Lily named her Sonia (after our blonde cousin in Germany who Lily is in love with). Sonia has spent a lot of time, cuddling with Lily and being carried around by her hair.

Check out the shiner on Lily's head. She literally ran into a wall at my friend's house while I was getting my hair done. How's that for some great Christmas pictures?

After the craziness of all the gift opening, everyone took a breather. We rested a while until my sister, her hubby and my brother came over and we got ready to our trek to the grandparents. This year we did a one gift per person, we drew names out of a hat and that worked really well -- except everyone got tons of stuff for the kids! I think Colin's favorite gift this year may have been the rocking horse he got from my Dad and Sarah. I set him on there, fully expecting confusing and possible tipping over, but he surpised us all by grabbing the handles and rocking. Incredible! Anyway, he digs that thing! Lily's favorite gift from my Dad's was a box of princess dress up clothes. Needless to say, I've been having a lot of conversations with Snow White lately!

I didn't get a lot of good pictures of family, but we were very blessed this year to have everyone so close! I know the kids love having Grandaddy and Deanna right down the road (and Matt, when he's here), my sister and brother not far and my parents and grandparents pretty close as well. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!