Our Christmas

We had a great Christmas in the Parham house!!!  The kids are both at great ages and were really into the whole thing.  What a joy.

We kicked off the weekend with a visit from Steven, Kate and Samantha.  We like to try to see them at Christmas time and we managed to squeeze it in on a Thursday night this year and they actually spent the night which was so fun!  It was a pretty quick trip but it was so fun to spend some time together.

Adorable Samantha  :-)

Steven and Kate always bring the best toys for the kids

Playing Rock Em Sock Em Robots with Steven

Watching a little Dora on Friday morning

Waylon and Steven - friends for 23 years!

Steven and Kylie

After the Weavers left on Friday morning, Waylon went to work and I sent the kids to school to get some last minute Christmas things done.  I managed to get the rest of the shopping and wrapping and some cooking done!  It was nice to have that all done before Christmas Eve so we could just enjoy.  I got the kids a little early and met Megan, Jason and Ryan at the park.  Then we met Waylon after work for dinner.

Christmas Eve was nice.  We just relaxed in the morning and then went to run a few errands and have lunch out - more to just get out of the house than anything else.  After a little afternoon rest, we got all dressed up and went to the Sharpes house for a yummy Christmas Eve turkey dinner!  And we couldn't resist getting a few family shots in front of the tree....

Where is the time going!?

After dinner and lots of playtime, we came home to get ready for Santa.  This year, Nana and Grandaddy came to spend the night to experience the madness of Christmas morning.  When we got home, we had a package from Cousin Ron - books!!  I told Noah that Ronnie works in a book store and always likes to get books.  The next day, when we were opening presents from Santa, Noah was opening a package that was obviously a book and said, 'Maybe this is from Uncle Ronnie!'  :-)

Waylon pulled up a message from Santa on the computer.   The kids were enthralled.  :-)

Putting out coolies for Santa

And milk, too!

So sweet

We were a little riled up before bedtime.....  :-)

Crazy kids

And we had to read The Night Before Christmas - Noah even did a version of it for us on video... it was so cute!!!

After the kids were in bed, Santa came!!!  So much fun.

The kids' piles

The whole scene - complete with 'A Christmas Story' on TV!  :-)

 When I was growing up, it was tradition for my parents to take pictures of my sister and I after we went to sleep on Christmas Eve.  I snuck in and did the same.... so sweet.

Surprisingly, they weren't up too early on Christmas morning.  Kylie was in our bed by around 6:00 or so but went back to sleep (this has been routine for the past few weeks - ugh - at least she goes back to sleep!).  And Noah was up at 6:30 asking to open presents but we were able to hold him off until close to 7:00 which was nice.

Coming down the stairs!  So excited!!

Kylie went straight to her stocking and grabbed a Dora doll - she asked Santa for 'Dora Presents'

Digging into stockings right away!

Cars 2 for Noah and Tangled for Kylie!!

Noah got Maximus (from Tangled).  This is one of his favorites.

And Kylie got Rapunzel

Dora Presents!  This one is a bath toy but she's been carrying them around all over and even slept with them last night!  :-)

Noah was so excited about his pants (note sarcasm)  :-)

Super Noah!

And the big finale!  Noah had been asking for a Monorail toy ever since we went to Disney World.  He was SOOO excited!

And Kylie got a tea set and cart.

Opening stockings from Nana and Grandaddy!

Hugs for Nana

 We stopped halfway through opening presents for breakfast.  I made two breakfast casseroles and orange rolls.  Yum!  Wish I had gotten a picture of our beautiful table.

Grandaddy and Daddy set up Noah's monorail

He was so excited!!

 We forgot that we had a few presents from 'us' rather than Santa.  Both kids got a game for the Wii.  Can't wait to try that out!

Super Kylie!  :-)

Nana and Grandad left around 10:30 to go see Savannah's loot and we Skyped with Grammy and Papa.  Then after a little rest for everyone, we took off to Nana and Grandad's for Christmas #2 of the day!

What a spread!

Savannah opening out gift to her - Rapunzel's Dress Shop

Noah got some dress up things!

A big boy helicopter

Cowboy boots and a hat!  Yee Haw!

Kylie loves her dress up shoes

Nana and her girls

Some games on the ipad before saying goodbye.

In the midst of all the present opening, we took a break and had another super yummy dinner.  It was a whirlwind but so so fun as always.  Waylon and I also got some awesome presents from Nana and Grandaddy, too.  The highlight of which was a Kate Spade purse for me!!!!  WOW!

I can't believe after all the preparation, it's over.  But the good news is that we get to have Round #3 with Grammy, Papa, Leah and Bill later this week!  The kids and I will head to MD on Wednesday morning and Waylon will join us on Friday.  We can't wait to keep celebrating!  I hope you all had a great holiday, too!!