Christmas 2014

We celebrated our Christmas this year on Christmas Eve.  The night before, the kids sprinkled food on the ground outside for the reindeer….

 (not sure about this picture….Connor found this mask and insisted on crawling around on the ground before heading outside to sprinkle food)

 made sure the chimney was clear for Santa….

 Wrote Santa a 'thank you' note

 (these noses were their idea…..they wore them all week long)

And read 'The Night Before Christmas.'

We thought they for sure wouldn't sleep at all, but ended up not having too much trouble.  Scott did have to go upstairs and tell Connor that he saw on the news that Santa was almost in our area and he wouldn't come unless he went to sleep.  He was out within 5 minutes!

 In the morning….Elli woke up first, went downstairs, ran back up to her room and told all her stuffed animals "He came!!  He came!!"  She grabbed her new glasses out of her stocking and came into the room to get me up!

 We read out of the Bible before opening presents

 Emery's first Christmas in her new chair!!

 Getting ready to open her first gift!

 She needed some help from big sis.

 Ha….apparently she wasn't too excited about her 2014 barbie!

 Both kids got Wizard of Oz costumes

 He asked Santa for this toothless dragon!

 Elli got her Elsa doll that she asked Santa for multiple times!

 After opening presents, I made brunch, we watched movies, took naps, played with toys, packed up to go to Indiana and ate a big dinner.  We made a last minute decision to leave that night around 8:30 to go to Indiana so Emery would sleep the whole way home.  We got to Indiana late that night and had a rough night of sleep with Connor and Emery.

Scott and the older 2 kids went over to his parents for a bit on Christmas morning then came back over to my parent's house to celebrate with the Zurchers.

Emery's first Christmas….

We opened gifts with the Zurchers and ate brunch and dinner with them.

 Later that evening, the adults opened gifts at my parents while the kids were in bed sleeping.  The kids opened their gifts on Friday morning….

 Excited about his new fishing gear

 Emery and I spent the better part of the day on Friday at the Doctor….really….the whole thing took roughly 3 hours.  She was diagnosed with thrush again….I'm just glad we were able to see someone!  After dinner, we headed over to Lindvalls.

We opened gifts at the their house on Saturday morning, had a big lunch, and played with toys.  We also went to see a movie later in the day….Emery's first movie, 'Big Hero 6.'

 Emery with her new hat and afghan that Nana L. made her!

 We went to church on Sunday morning and then spent the day celebrating Christmas with the extended Lindvall family before we went back home to Ohio!

Elli with her boys!!

We had a great Christmas!!  Sleeping was rough….Connor had a horrible cough and spent much of each night coughing and then grinding his teeth.  It was awful!  Scott and I spent much of the night trying to keep Emery asleep, so she wouldn't wake the other kids!  Needless to say, our beds felt amazing once we got home!!  Despite the lack of sleep, each Christmas gets more fun as the kids get older!  Elli was so sad once it was over (and maybe because we took down all the decorations the day after we got home).  We couldn't have asked for a better Christmas!