Christmas 2011 Part 1

Christmas is such a big event for us that I am splitting up the posts.....plus you probably don't want to see so many photos all at once!

 (which I wish would upload faster...anybody else having slow photo uploads?)

Christmas begins for us when we go to the Christmas Eve service at church. I love setting the stage, if you will, to our festivities by remembering why we celebrate Christmas and illuminating our church by candle light. I always want to get pictures of the dressy Christmas outfits next to the tree before we leave....

Afterwards, we head to Nana & Poppa's for our Christmas together. They fix snack/appetizer type food because Tyler and his brother do good to eat the ham & turkey at the other gatherings. Its always very relaxed and just plain fun to hang out with one another on Christmas eve.

Garyn helped Poppa with passing out the gifts....Ansley went for just about any present in view!

Garyn got a lot of big gifts here! Wii Punch Out game was a great start!

I got some great gifts, too. This was when I opened the wireless printer!

Back to Garyn.....LeapPad!

He also got a Cars 2 Trouble game and, as he calls it, the Who Guess game. He got some Mario shirts and a Tonka truck track, too. We have been playing non stop with all of them!

Ansley got a cute doll with brown hair and blue eyes like her. She also got some cute clothes. I didn't really get a great picture of them though. Tyler got some work wear including these fun safety glasses with lights on the sides......

Then we headed home to begin getting the kids to bed so Santa could come. I had to work part of Christmas night this year, too, so it was off to work once they were asleep! It took Garyn longer to go to bed because he kept asking if Santa had come. This was the first year he did that. We left pie & milk out for Santa, too, so it was fun to see his excitement with all that.

Once I got home Christmas morning, we started breakfast and waited for the kids to wake up. Well, they had already been awake several times that night. Tyler had little sleep between Ansley getting up every 2 hours and waking Garyn up a couple times. He would then want to go see if Santa had come which is when Tyler just put him in our bed trying desperately to get some sleep! Poor thing....needless to say we were all pretty tired Christmas day! BUT it was a great day.

Santa's gifts....

Garyn and Ansley enjoyed opening presents and playing that morning.....

Garyn got a Wii Cars 2 steering wheel! Can't you just see the excitement on his face!

I loved how Garyn helped Ansley with her stocking. He was just as excited to see what she got as he was about his. He is a great big brother!

Ansley got lots of new play toys. She plays with them some but seems to want everything that is off limits, like the razor I found her with the other day!

Tyler went over board, as usual, for me. I got the food processor/chopper you see behind Ansley in the above photo. I also got an I Phone along with every other thing I had on my list! I am gonna have to do better for him next year, I had gotten him some clothes and shoes he wanted.

It was a great night and morning for our first Christmas as a family of four!

Stay tuned for the rest of Christmas day...