Christmas Day

We started off bright and early at our house, which is the first time Juliet has celebrated Christmas morning here.  As she slowly opened each present, she wanted to explore and play with them one at at time. I love how patient and interested she was, but wonder how long this will last. We tried to move her along as quickly as we could without rushing her because we had to get to church and then home again for our first round of family. My dad, Carol, Jeff, Sarah, her mom, and my brother Johnny came over for brunch, and it was lovely to visit with them all. Coincidentally, my dad is from the same little beach town in Florida where Sarah's mom lives!

 

 

 

I debated about getting Juliet a new baby doll because she always plays with one that comes with a paci at our neighborhood toy store, but I decided that since we already have two baby dolls we didn't need another.  (I am pretty aware about buying her a variety of gender specific toys, because I like to encourage her to play with both. She has a train set, trucks and dinasaurs, but she definitely loves her baby dolls and kitchen. And I should say that I love dolls too, but I like to balance them out with things like Lincoln Logs, which she also got for Christmas.) However, one of Brian's sisters got her a doll with a paci, and as you can see, Juliet was in love. This little doll and her new marble maze are the hits around here still.

 

 

 

 

In the afternoon, we headed over to Donny and Megan's house where we had poinsettia cocktails, dinner, playtime and opened a ton of presents. We even had a Katy Perry dance off where we cheered everyone on as they busted out their favorite moves. This might need to become a new Christmas tradition. As the kids are getting older, they of course become more independent, but also a ton more fun. I love creating these memories with them!

 

 

 

 

Even baby James got to be in on the action.

 

 

While the adults ate dinner, all the kids sat down to watch Rudolf. This never would have been able to happen last year. I am loving this new level of independence we are getting to!

 

 

And then it was time to open presents. We had everyone open them one at at time and went youngest to oldest. Clearly, the kids got a lot of joy out of watching one another open their gifts. Oh well, at least the adults did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at the cute Christmas twins!

 

 

It was a wonderful Christmas, and as we toasted over dinner we all agreed that we felt so blessed to have one another and would take our hectic family over anything anytime.

 

Merry Christmas!