Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

As soon as we got back from MD on the 23rd, we unloaded the car and then Waylon took off to go to the grocery store to get things ready for Christmas Eve (so we didn't have to go out at all the next day).  We had a nice relaxing morning and then Nana and Grandad came over at lunchtime to hang out all afternoon and evening with us and help get dinner ready.  Andrea, Sean and Savannah of course came and we had a yummy ham dinner that everyone helped prepare!

Dancing with Grandaddy

Reading with Uncle Sean

Sharpe family photo!

I was trying to get the 3 kids in front of the tree but Kylie wasn't having it so we did a different type of family photo!  :-)

Dessert Picnic!

Nana read them The Night Before Christmas

 After everyone left, we opened our traditional Christmas Eve gifts - PJs and a book  :-)

And of course put out milk and cookies for Santa!

Self family photo

So sweet and so excited!!

And of course I had to get pictures of the children all nestled in their beds - my parents always did this with us growing up.  :-) 

Santa came!!

and ate (most of) the cookies and milk!

The kids actually slept until about 7:30 so we were happy with that, but of course they were ready to get down the stairs right away after they got up!!

Funny story, as they were coming down the stairs, they peeked around the banister and were looking at their presents.  Noah said, 'Kylie!!  Santa brought you presents!' and just after she said, 'I know', she missed the last step and fell flat on her face!  We have a video of it that is so funny.  Obviously, she was ok and she bounced back very quickly.  :-)  It was so funny.

Stockings!!

One of the things Noah asked for for Christmas - Bey Blades

Kylie got her 'unicornio'  :-)

Playing with the Bey Blades

New babydoll!

Noah got Harry Potter and he and I have been reading a little bit of it each night.  He likes it so far!

A baby doll bed, too!!

A Bey Blade stadium! (I've learned a lot this Christmas about big boy toys!) - look at that face!

I got Waylon tickets to go see Willie Nelson but ruined the surprise right before we left for MD.  :-(  I was wrapping a picture of him and thought I was very clever doing so until Waylon walked in and saw the pictures plastered all over the computer screen while I was wrapping.  I couldn't think quick enough to make up a reason as to why I'd be looking at pictures of Willie Nelson and had a deer in the headlight look on my face so he figured it out.  Here he is when he finally unwrapped them on Christmas morning - acting surprised.  :-)

Look familiar? (see side view above on his son's face)  :-)

Noah's big gift was a DS.  We had him unwrap the case first and Waylon read a 'note' from Santa saying this was the case and that he'd bring the DS for his birthday.  He actually believed it for a minute and got disappointed until we produced the real gift.  Mean Daddy.  :-)

Opening the case

Reading the 'letter' (ie the instructions) from Santa

The real DS - so happy!!!

Kylie enjoying some of her presents

Happy boy - knew right what to do!

And happy girl, too!

Santa also brought them each and outfit - Kylie wasn't so fond of her miniskirt and tights - we have more fights over clothes these days!!  Noah was never like this (still isn't) - must be engrained in that second X chromosome.!

Salty Kylie - and yes that's a bandaid on her forehead - no boo-boo just had fun with bandaids

Forced happiness but it's cute none-the-less!  :-)

We relaxed a bit, played with our toys (I got a new GPS!), watched some of the Disney Christmas Day parade, and skyped with Grammy, Papa, Leah, Bill and Sukha.  Then Nana and Grandad came by for a short time to check out what Santa brought them.  After that, we packed up and went over to Nana and Grandad's house.  I told the kids they could bring something if they wanted - Noah of course brought his DS and Kylie chose her toothpaste and bandaids!  ???  Then as and afterthought, she asked for her unicorn (this was after we arrived and Waylon had gone home to get the presents for Nana, Grandad and Savannah because we forgot to bring them with us!!!).  Woops.  :-)

Kylie wanted to dance with Grandaddy again!

This is how Noah looked a lot of the day.  :-)

 Grandaddy decided to take Kylie for a ride in the 'race car'.  They just went for a quick ride around the block but Kylie loved it!

and that even pulled Noah away from his DS to get a turn.

Like father, like son  :-)

When Savannah arrived, it was time to pass out the presents and open more!!  They did pretty well with taking turns this year.  They have grown up so fast!

So exciting!

Sweet Savannah

Captain America!

We decided not to exchange gifts between the adults but we all cheated and couldn't resist anyway.  We went in with Andrea and Savannah and got Nana and Grandad a gift card  to Ruth Chris Steakhouse.  Nana was happy.  :-)

Here is the Mistletoes picture I talked about in the last post

We had such a lovely time celebrating with the Parham side, too!  We are so lucky to both have such loving families!  We always end up getting several celebrations out of it!!  :-)

Just before we left, we got a text from some neighbors telling us we should stop by on our way back.  We made the mistake of saying it out loud in front of Noah so he decided he really wanted to go but of course Kylie passed out in the car on the way home!  Busy day.  We decided why not let him so he and I went over there for a little while.  We ended up staying fairly late but he had a blast showing off his new DS to his friends.  It was nice to have a little more flexibility with the kids sleeping habits during this holiday season!  :-)  They enjoyed it also.

Me, Cari-Anne and Stephanie

Noah and Ben - don't they look alike!?

What a fabulous Christmas we had - and the holiday wasn't over yet!  I ended up with a little extra time off than expected thanks to the CEO of my company and Waylon got some good time off also - so it ended up being quite a long holiday for us.  More to come in the next post!!!