Christmas

We decided to do a very, VERY low key Christmas this year. Last year, I was able to decorate the house becuase the boys weren't crawling or anything yet, so I didn't have to worry about them getting into anything. I decorate the inside and outside of the house, we had a traditional Christmas dinner, got the boys lots of presents, took a ton of pictures, etc. It was their first Christmas and I'm so glad I did it that way. This year, the boys are at the age where they are into everything and don't really get the concept of Christmas yet. So, I decided to just put up a few decorations, just get the boys a couple of things to open on Christmas and just really take it easy that day. I'm looking forward to next year and going all out for Christmas, but this year, it was nice to just have a relaxing day with family.

My family arrived on Friday around 4:00. They unloaded the car and played with the boys, then we ate some dinner, put the boys to bed and hung out for a little while before going to bed early. On Saturday, my dad and Greg worked on some little projects around the house. They lowered the boys cribs, hung up a coat rack and key rack, and made a couple of trips to Lowe's to get a new door. My mom and sister played with the boys, while I cooked. I decided to have just appetizers and desserts on Christmas, so I made the cold dips the day before and got everything ready for the hot dips so on Christmas, I could just throw them together. I made a pasta salad for dinner and made Paula Deen's Sunday Morning Casserole for us to have for breakfast on Christmas. Then we all just hung out and played with the boys. They loved all the extra attention. After we put the boys to bed, we left Greg at home with the boys and we all went to look at Christmas lights. I love looking at Christmas lights.

On Christmas morning, we dumped the balls that I got at Target into their pack-n-play and let them play in that. They were in that thing off and on for most of the day. Then, we let them open one present each before their first nap. While they were napping, we ate the breakfast casserole and it was so good! I'll definitely be having that again. Then the adults exchanged gifts. After the boys woke up from their nap, we let them open some more gifts. They didn't get the concept of unwrapping until the end. They would open a toy and be perfectly content with what they opened that they had no interest in opening anymore gifts. We would take a break from opening and let them play a little and then open some more. They got a lot of really nice things and have loved playing with everything they got. They were too hyped up to take their second nap, so they just played with their toys all day and enjoyed the attention from everybody.



Here's the boys playing on Saturday morning.

Evan on Christmas morning

They loved the ball pit. The spent a lot of time in there playing.

Carter loves for Papaw to hold him and play with him. It doesn't matter what they're doing. He was perfectly content looking through a random magazine he found on the kitchen table.

Getting to open their first present. You can see the balls that they threw out of the ball pit.

The first toys they opened.

I forgot to take a picture of the breakfast casserole when we took it out of the oven. So, I decided to take a picture afterwards, we finished it off!

Opening presents. You can see the Record a Story book that they got of Papaw reading "3 Little Pigs" for Christmas. I really want the boys to have a book read by each grandparent. I think it'd be so nice since they don't live near their grandparents to be able to open a book and hear them read it to them.

Opening their Little People Airplane.

Getting help from Papaw with their little book. they loved taking packages to Papaw to open or help with. The rest of us were chop liver.

Evan's poor little eye. It was finally healing from the time he hit it before Thanksgiving and then he hit it again in his crib (I have no idea how) and then a couple of days later, fell off his riding toy and hit it again. Of course, he just got right back up and went on like it was nothing.

Their gifts from Aunt Caroline. They each got one and they're a little different.

They really loved these toys. (probably because they made the most noise)

Books from "Aunt B" (aka Brandi) I took videos of them opening her gifts that I'll post on our youtube page later.

You can see one of their lovies from Aunt B in the back and Carter reaching for another gift. She spoiled them! They got a ton of books, each got a lovie, clothes, etc.

Evan had lost interest in opening gifts and instead wanted to play with the stereo.

Evan found the tv remotes and grabbed one for him and one for Carter. All these great gifts from everybody and fun new toys, and they're playing with our old tv remotes. Notice Greg and the boys wearing matching pjs. I also had on a set, we got them from Greg's parents. It was perfect because that was a tradition that I wanted us to have, wearing matching Christmas pjs on Christmas.

Caroline was trying to hide from the camera. nice try.

The boys got a lot of nice things from everybody, even though they really didn't need anything. I wish I had taken a picture of everything, they got two nice, Melissa and Doug puzzles which were perfect since I've been wanting to start buying those for them. They make noise when you put the piece in the right place, for example--when you put the cow in the correct spot it "moos". They're going to have a lot of fun playing with those. They love the bead toys they got, the noise makers, their lovies, all the books, etc.

. I really enjoyed our laid back, low key Christmas.