Merry Christmas!

We had such a wonderful Christmas morning watching the delight in our kids faces! They really are at fantastic ages and enjoyed the spirit of Christmas to the fullest. We opened up our own family presents as well as everything from Santa before the rest of the family came over. My parents and Mark, Melissa, Tiana & Elijah came over around 9am (and yes, we'd already finished our own stuff by that time). We decided to eat before attacking anymore gifts. On my mom's side, there is a very strong sense of tradition when it comes to Christmas morning breakfast. I decided that we're at my house this year and I'm doing things my way. So there! :) We had a wonderful egg casserole dish, a grapefruit/orange/pomegranate seed salad, homemade cinnamon rolls and drinks. It was perfectly delicious and our new tradition.

After opening gifts, everyone went their seperate ways in hopes of getting a 2nd wind. It was so much fun to see Christmas through the eyes of tweens (beTWEEN childhood & teenagers) and to have Mark and his family here. My parents were in heaven to have us all together! Later in the afternoon we headed over to Jeremy's parents to do Christmas with his grandma and family. Later some dear old family friends joined us (they spend every Thanksgiving & Christmas with these families) for dinner. It was a full house but very fun to be around such tradition and all the laughter. After dinner we scooted out to head back over to my parents. Yet another Christmas celebration! This time was to be with my grandma after they'd all eaten dinner. It was a crazy day but we are grateful to have seen everyone in the family and spent quality time together. The kids crashed before leaving my parents neighborhood.

They're off!

Happiest. Boy. Ever.

Maggie with her "Princess Music Thing" that she asked Santa for

All 4 kids anxiously awaiting the gifts...It is so fun to see how close they have become.

We had to get Elijah a Husky shirt to start representing the Dawgs down in LA. He's a huge USC fan so we've got to bring him around. He even wore it a few times while up here but the bigger question is will he wear it in California?

Maggie's very special quilt that Grandma B (my grandma) made for her with fairies all over it. She absolutely adores it!