Christmas 2011

After staying up so late on Christmas Eve, we thought (hoped!) the kids would sleep in a bit.

NOPE!

Evyn was up by 6:30, and Andrew about an hour later.  It didn't take them long to start tearing into the packages that Santa had left for them.

Santa is a pretty clever guy.  He brought Evyn an electric keyboard, even though there was no mention of it on her wish list.  In fact, she had only told us a few hours before Santa's expected arrival that she was really hoping for a piano for Christmas.  What luck!

Later in the afternoon we went to Grams & Pops' house (Scott's parents) for a wonderful meal and- you guessed it!- more gifts.

Evyn opening her cherished American Girl doll

The kids were exhausted but happy by the time we crawled into beds Sunday night.

Christmas Eve 2011

Saturday night we hosted our annual Christmas Eve shindig, with Aunt Lori & Uncle Larry, cousins Emily & Elisabeth, Grandma & Grandpa B., Gloria & Larry C., and Michelle.  Unfortunately, Aunt Lani & Uncle Ryan were feeling under the weather and couldn't come.  The kids got lots of great gifts, and the grown-ups had fun doing a "re-gift" themed gift exchange, and deciding who had the worst presents.  We're already plotting what trinkets we can squirrel away for next year's exchange....

We were so busy enjoying the company of our guests that we didn't get many pictures (and none that turned out well) but you'll get the idea:

I'm not sure what I did differently this year, but whatever it was, worked great, because after everyone left, we had very little cleaning up to do, and half the number of dishes as usual waiting to be washed.  Which gave us time to relax after putting the kids to bed- awesome!  Andrew zonked pretty quickly, but Evyn stayed up until close to midnight, putting together treats for Santa:

Aunt Lori's cookies, a pair of Hershey's kisses, fruit salad (because Santa needs something healthy to give him energy!), extra-chocolatey chocolate milk, and celery for the reindeer.  Evyn was pleased to find an empty tray on Christmas morning.