Christmas 2012

I think I can safely speak for the entire family when I say we had a spectacular Christmas. This year, I took pictures of the gift opening, which I never do. But I'm glad I did, it's been fun to relive their happy and surprised expressions.

After Santa's arrival on Christmas Eve.

I woke up at about 1:30am and realized I had forgotten to put the furniture in the Barbie house. Yikes! I wasn't thrilled to get up, but thankful that I remembered in time. You can see our Hippo Hero sitting there in the Barbie house, too. If I had thought about it more, I would have put a note instead telling her she would find her hippo in the garage (I had teased her that I would take the cars out on Christmas Eve to make room for her hippo).

They started with stockings. Naiya was so excited to get one of the "My Way" Toothbrushes she always begs for when we go to Walmart.

I love how she looks more excited than he does. He really was thrilled to get this Epic Perplexus, I swear.

Notably happy to get the Guinness Book of World Records for 2013!

He spent much of Christmas Vacation with his nose in this book. This kid loves random info!

Naiya loves playing restaurant so we got her more play food to expand her menu.

Can you see the look on her face? She has wanted this "Rainbow in my Room" thing forever and I couldn't see the point in buying it. Luckily, Santa is nicer than I am.

Both were excited that he got the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book.

He opened all his gifts with this expression. Love it!

Her expressions were a bit more theatrical, as is she. She is quite happy to get new earrings.

Naiya made little notes and pictures for everyone, here they are laughing about the silly warped Santa she drew for Calin.

The silly warped Santa picture.

Such a fun morning! That TV behind them is a little gift from Freddy, our Elf on the Shelf. It's for our playroom and was quite a surprise to me.

After gifts we had a big breakfast, prepped the food for dinner, and were joined by Darin's parents, Mike & Evonne. The Nielsen's joined us later on for dinner and we had a very lovely Christmas surrounded by loved ones.