Christmas Day

While we are so very thankful we have most of our family close by and we can celebrate with them, it always makes for a hectic Christmas Day! We wake up Christmas morning at our house and see what Santa brought. This year he didn't disappoint! Although she received the Hungry Hungry Hippo game already, Santa brought her another and it was the first gift she ran to! Emory had a blast checking out all of her gifts...

She got plenty of dress up clothes, games, books, puzzles, movies, playdoh, and a doll high chair, among other things.

She also enjoyed checking out all of Watson's gifts...

A high chair, a big boy carseat, some trains, baby spoons, books, and a robe were some of his goodies.

Santa also brought the kids a wagon to share. Obviously Santa didn't know that Big Sister's sharing skills are virtually non-existant, so that will be a learning experience for sure!

After seeing what Santa brought, we headed to my parents' house to have breakfast {I altered this casserole a bit...so easy and so yummy!} and open more gifts. The kids were indeed spoiled, as were Aaron and I. Thanks Mom and Dad!

We then headed to Camden to my grandparents' house. Some of us had another breakfast and others played with wrapping paper.

We headed to the lake house to have lunch with the extended family. By this point some of us were in great spirits, but others were starting to fade...

We left the lake to head to Mimi and Papa's house for presents and an early dinner. Not everyone had arrived yet when we got there, so we had a little time to relax. Baby Boy read some books with Daddy and Baby Girl played under the coffee table with the trains for a while, then she headed outside to look at the fish pond.

Once everyone was there, we had another wonderful meal, and although we were 100% stuffed before we ate, Aaron and I both cleaned our plates!

We were pressed for time as we had yet another stop to make so we squeezed in some cousin time while we opened gifts. Both of the boys seemed to have had a wonderful first Christmas!! It's hard to believe that next Christmas they will be running around playing together!

Thank you Mimi and Papa for the delicious meal and the wonderful gifts! We cannot wait to drop the kids back off at your house for a date night!

We made one final stop to have dinner {our 5th meal!!} with my Dad's side of the family. Emory got to take a few of her Christmas toys and Aunt Boo helped her put them together so she could play. We had a great time at each of our "stops" but by the end of the day we could barely keep our eyes open. It was all we could do to get home, unload all of the gifts from the car and get everyone ready for and into bed.

We had a fabulous Christmas and, while Watson obviously had no clue what was going on, Emory LOVED everything about the Christmas season! She already misses finding her Elf, taking a candy cane off of the advent calendar and playing with her nativity set. We {I} am more than excited to get my house back in order and get back in our normal routine, but I am already looking forward to Christmas 2010!

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas

and we wish you much health and happiness in the New Year!