Christmas 2012

Here comes A LOT of Christmas pictures! Get ready!!!!

Mimi is currently playing here with a friend from school and is in HEAVEN. Her week and a half of solitude and sickness has been broken..hooray! Bode's still fighting through teeth/a cold...who knows? But Ben and I keep sending up desperate prayers for relief (and sleep! Last night he only wanted ME in the middle of the night...all three or four times! Ay yi yi. I should go shut my eyes or something, but the need to document calls ;)

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Ben had to work on Christmas Eve, which was a real bummer. So I let Mimi open up a present or two from friends to make it feel more "christmas-y"

I actually bought those print outs from Pinterest that we all pinned. They were SO fun and so cheap!

Thank you for sending us Christmas cards...they are the HIGHLIGHT of my year!!!! Mail's never been so fun!

(the ones with money in them are extra fun...thanks G and G!!!!!)

When Bode took a nap, it was operation gingerbread cookies!

When Bode woke up we just played with toys!

This is him taking the liberty to find marshmallows in the pantry...

Every Christmas Eve we normally charge off to Denver to be with Ben's family at his Aunt Karen's house by the zoo. It's always a great, crazy time. But this year we wanted to just do a low-key Christmas...just us. It was pretty magical. We made it to church ( and met Ben there) and then came home and had a little dinner. Our neighborhood also lights luminaries down every street so we were around to do that too!

Ben and I had fun playing Santa after the kiddos were asleep...here's a text between my friend Verna and I. We both bought the same play kitchen on sale at Kohl's...

Love those husbands and their skills :)

The next morning, Bode woke up and had a little oatmeal while he waited for his sister...

 Here's the magic that was waiting for them:

But stockings first!

Bode still wasn't feeling awesome..can you tell? But he did feel awesome enough to throw his balls from his stocking all over the floor in record time...

Santa knows me so well!

Bode discovered the cookies Santa left. Who said you can't have gingerbread for breakfast on Christmas morning?!? Not I!

(for fellow photo-nerds out there...sorry for the BRIGHT flash-y pics...when it's dark outside and you have moving kids, I decided not to be artsy and awesome, but just pop that flash and capture some pics..but man, they are BRIGHT!)

(this was after we had already been up for an hour and twenty minutes :)

My very own LILLY PULITZER! Good thing that Santa reads my blog! Or Santa hinted that he may get that in October and I "helped" him by hunting it down 50% off online...no need for Santa to pay full price! 

This was Bode's present so maybe he'd stop wanting to touch all of the buttons on the computer..we'll see how it works.

 And that's my present to myself...Bode's blog book..a labor of love!

 Disney ornaments:

(that's Bode's...to remember his Snow White kiss at Disney.)

(And there's Mimi's...she told me her favorite character to see at Disney was Stitch. Even though she didn't really even want to talk to him).

It was a fun quiet morning, just us. We were excited to host some of the grandparents and uncle drew for lunch later on.

Nothing more amazing than a white Christmas!!!!

This is Mimi's awkward hug/shove to thank her uncle Drew. I hate that we make her (and Drew) uncomfortable by the token, "go thank Uncle Drew, Mimi!" command, but gratitude and manners are important. Maybe she'll do it on her own one of these days.. 

Bode on the other hand doesn't need to be told twice. He loves his Uncle Drew's hands...he'll give him a high five, then just hold them there, like they have some sort of special connection...

It was at this part of the morning that I realized we had tipped over the just enough presents and TOO many presents...things were being opened that I didn't even get to see, from distant family and friends...I'm not quite sure how to stop this barrage! And that's even before Nana and Gpa showed up with some show stoppers! I told my dad before Christmas that the kids didn't need anything, but my dad said, "you try being a grandparent...we want to go to Costco and shop for them!" So we let them and our kids love it all. It's good to see that they actually love and play with everything. (I have taken the liberty of hiding some for later though...)

Tandem brother opening gifts time...

Then Nan and Gpa and Gabe came in! Bearing more gifts...and a HORSE! WHAT!?!?!
Mimi hasn't left that thing yet.
He even sings!

And Bode open-mouth kisses him every time he walks by it. No joke.

It's really too bad that no one loves these kids.

After a morning of presents, Mimi was turning a little manic. She was like the monsters in old movies that just grow and grow in ferocity,  with everything they consume. At one point in the morning, in a present opening frenzy, she walked over to this ALREADY UNWRAPPED board game box and tore it open...like a monster. That's when we knew she needed to be done. 
We couldn't stop laughing (behind her back) at the whole, scariness of it all.

Woa.

Then we all had yummy warm soup, salad and bread and conversation, with a fire in the background. Now that's the special part of Christmas.

We all rested after everyone left, then headed over in jammies to have a very low key dinner at Bob and Robyn's.

We're blessed beyond belief and I'm so very thankful. For familes that are close and like being with each other, for a wall full of christmas card photos of friends, for healthy kids and a warm house.

Thank you Lord. :)

xoxoxo

(not that that isn't all enough, but here's Gabe's AMAZEBALLS pictures...so so much better than mine...I'm working on it ;)

How I really spent Christmas...trying to practice shooting Manual on dad's camera...

That's Mimi's awesome microphone. She spent the rest of Christmas simultaneously riding her new horse and belting out original songs, amplified on a mic.

 How you should spent Christmas afternoon...

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