Santa Claus we are ready!!

After dinner at my parents' house on Christmas Eve, we headed back to Little Rock to get ready for Santa Claus! Ella had a plan already for what we were going to do when we got home: put on our PJs, set out the milk and cookies, write a note, and then quickly get in bed so he can come....no messing around!
Here is what we left for him and our note: ( the bowl is full of reindeer food Ella made at school)

We all snuggled in bed and quickly fell asleep. It had been a long day!

The next morning here is what we found:

That beautiful sight quickly became this mess: (Notice Luke in his undies, he got Spiderman underwear in his stocking and had to quickly try them out)

 Daddy loved the new remote control cars Luke got from Mims and Pa!

 Ella's favorite gift was her password journal although she is telling me now as I write this that she also really liked the new animal socks she got in her stocking too!

They also liked their new chairs from Craig and Lauren which they sat in while they played their new Xbox game from Santa (Epic Mickey 2).

It was a great Christmas day!!

Christmas Eve 2012

We stayed in AR this Christmas and headed to my parents Christmas Eve morning.

At noon, we went to my Grandparents' house for lunch to see all the aunts and uncles and cousins. We attended Christmas Mass at 4pm then headed back to mom's to let the kids open presents and have dinner. Luke was about to die to open presents! We got to my parents at 11 am and he didn't get to open them until about 6pm. Poor little guy was barely hanging on!!

Here are some pics of the fun:

Fancy Feast 2012

We had our traditional Family Fancy Feast this year on the 23rd. We had a great Mexican dinner with lots of laughing and story telling.

 After the feast, we played several games especially Hungry Hippo which is still Luke's favorite!

Kicking off Christmas vacation

The kids wrapped up school on December 21st which was also Lyle's last day of work until after Christmas. My favorite part about this time of year is getting the house stocked up on food!! Before we picked up Luke from school, Ella and I ran to the grocery store and gathered the loot! We took a picture and sent it to Lyle saying, "Let the Christmas Vacation begin!!"

We can't have Christmas without Lyle's favorite Spiced Eggnog!

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas with out Cookies!

It was getting close to the big day so we had to get some cookies ready for Santa Clause. We made up some DELICIOUS sugar cookies ( I found a new recipe and they were really good!) and did a little decorating. Here are the kids having lots of fun! 

My Sweet Angel

The First graders at Ella's school always do the Christmas Pageant every year and on Sunday we had the big performance. She was an angel. It was really fun to get her all dressed up. The kids did a great job! They sang their little hearts out. Lyle and I were beaming with pride the whole time! Here is our sweet angel!

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas!

Tomorrow is St. Nicholas Day so tonight on the eve we put our Christmas lists on the front steps in our shoes for him to pick up. The kids called out to Santa telling him we were ready and then we waited! The anticipation was high! About 20 minutes later when we had almost forgot he was coming there was a HUGE knock on the door and the kids jumped off the couch. Luke yelled, "That was Santa!!" Ella hid her face in the couch and begged Luke to wait a couple of minutes to make sure he was gone before we went outside to see what he had left us. Along with some M&Ms, Skittles, and oreos, Santa left us a nativity scene and a letter.

 Here is the letter:

And here is the kids keeping their promise

Thank you Santa!!