Merry Christmas

Now really this picture is out of order cause by this point in the evening we've already opened half our presents.  But seeing my kids leave a plate of milk and cookies for Santa for the first time seems a good way to start off the Christmas post.  This was really the first year that Annie and Alex understood the concept of Santa Claus.   They listened a little better in December knowing that Santa was watching.  And they were very concerned that we not lock the front door on Christmas eve and that we went to bed quickly so that Santa wouldn't have any reasons to skip past our house.

As tradition dictates we opened our extended family's presents on Christmas eve.  And of course the kids were antsy all the way through dinner anxious to get downstairs.  They got lots of fun presents and I think they were glad that Ben couldn't open his own yet.  Ben was as excited as any very tired three month old could be, but Annie wanted to include him as much as possible.

Alex was the first one up on Christmas morning.  I didn't even hear him come down the stairs or rummage through the stockings, but by the time he hopped into bed with me he was absolutely shaking with anticipation.   He wanted to wake up Annie right away!  Alex already had the presents in mind he wanted to open first, and  picked the biggest present first.   Everything Annie opened was, "...just what I wanted!"  We spent the rest of the day doing nothing at all and watching the kids play with everything.  I love having little kids at Christmas time.

I think one of the things I enjoyed the most this Christmas was doing a twelve days of Christmas Secret Santa.  Annie and Alex got really into as well...even though Annie was the reason we got caught on the first night!  They loved being sneaky and leaving little poems and treats.  
I also enjoyed doing the 25 days of activities with the kiddos.  I will say I'm relieved that I don't have to think of an activity everyday anymore, but it was fun to do.  We will have to do it again next year too.  My favorite being the nativity dress up... we'll have to make that a tradition.