Christmas

Merry Christmas!!  We had a very quiet (as quiet as possible with 5 kids in the house) Christmas Eve this year… we watched some Christmas movies, played some games, went to 4:00 Mass (a feat in itself) and tried to get ready for Santa.

Just thought we could all use a picture of Peter in his precious Christmas outfit.

“OOoooo, Christmas lights”

Cookies left out for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.  Look closely.  Yes, those are turkey cookies.  Yes, place and bake, preformed cookie dough with a Thanksgiving theme.  Yes, Pillsbury.  Don’t judge.  I had the best intentions of making Christmas cookies.  Even before the baby was born, I was on a quest to find dairy-free margarine (in Kansas City and Milwaukee, it’s all over the place at regular grocery stores, but not here, apparently)  Since that quest was a bust, I decided to just give up and buy a roll of sugar cookie dough.  We could roll it out on Christmas eve and cut out and decorate the cookies.  Well, that idea went by the wayside after I had to hold a cranky baby for most of the day.  Finally, at 7:00, I realized we had nothing at all for Santa!  Luckily, Scott found these little beauties at the grocery store a few weeks earlier – right after Thanksgiving, they’re on sale.  While it’s not exactly festive, it got the job done.  Santa didn’t care.

Bikes, roller skates, Leapster 2, a Bumbo for the baby, a Kindle Fire for mom and a TV for all of us.  Santa rocks!

Andrew was enjoying hugging his stocking

Star Wars, The Complete Saga.  Joe was pumped.

About as excited as little boys should be when they get matching clothes.

Mommy got Daddy a helmet to go with his bike from Santa.  Who are we kidding.  I did NONE of the Christmas shopping.  Poor Scott braved all of the crowds and lines and parking lots.  God bless him.

Loving the Bumbo.  He’s pretty strong, so only a month or two and we can do the Bumbo for real.

Luke is pumped about Uno Attack.  Uno is a daily game here in our house.

Pat’s dream Lego set.  He’s been talking about it for months.  It will take less than an hour to lose a piece.

Santa left an extra gift hidden in the tree:  A one year pass to LEGOLAND, here in Dallas.  That Santa knows just what we love.

 

Some other random photos for you to enjoy:

Andrew loves kissing baby Peter

Joe in his Boy Scout uniform.  They had a Christmas party at their Pack meeting and he made this Santa sleigh out of candy.

Precious.

Grammie and Granddad are here to visit us now.  We’re really working hard on getting Andrew to go #2 on the toilet, so we brought the potty chair out in the living room.  Grammie volunteered to help him pass the time by reading a story.  The ‘end’ result: nothing to show for the effort.  Keep trying, Andrew!