Merry Christmas!

I hope you had a great Christmas!  We sure did.  We don't have a huge extended family here in Tennessee - just my parents, Chris' parents, and my sister, her boyfriend, and his child - so everyone comes to our house for most holidays.  Which I love.  It's no secret that I love to have a party, and any time I have people over I consider it a party!

Christmas Eve I actually got all five of us dressed and out the door to church.  On time!  In fact, we were the first people there.  I was quite impressed with ourselves.  The boys did such a good job.  There was a very small baby in the pew behind us.  The first time he made any noise Jack said (not quietly), "AH!  I just KNEW the Baby Jesus would be here tonight!"

After church we came home and everyone was at our house!  We had fabulous food - just a buffet style - with seafood Newburgh, lots of yummy dips, appetizers, and desserts.  We let each of the boys open one present on Christmas Eve, and they were of course very excited.  David wanted Henry to open a special gift that David had picked and wrapped for him.  He did such a great job wrapping it.

My favorite part?  "To Henry S."

Unfortunately for Henry S., it was my iPad.  Maybe next year David will pick something that Henry S. can actually keep.

The rest of the gifts they opened were great.  And the boys were maybe not the only people who were excited with their gifts. . . Nothing says Christmas Eve like a good light saber fight.

The boys went to bed relatively easily on Christmas Eve, which really surprised me because they were very excited for Santa.  We wrote him a note, got some cookies and milk ready, and went right to bed.  After they were in bed, Santa came and brought presents for them, as well as for Katie.  You can read on The Simpson Six about what Katie got from Santa - girlfriend got a bunch of goodies!

And of course I had my slipcovers off of the sofas!

I love the Christmas trees at night with no other lights on.

They were SO excited Christmas morning.  Chris' parents spent the night, and I could hear the boys in the guest room waking them up at about 5:30 in the morning.  Chris and I stayed in bed until they came down, and then they opened their stockings.  They were so loud and excited to see what Santa brought them!

This "big Indiana Jones" was by far Jack's favorite gift.

It's about the size of a Barbie.

And was a used toy from Craigslist for $8.  

(Which was a fantastic deal, because the same one on Amazon is over $40.)

The stockings were my favorite part about Christmas gifts when I was little.

And, um, still are.

Santa had a moment of crazy and brought slide whistles.  

Three of them.

Bad move Santa.  Bad move.

Since Katie isn't here yet to open her gifts, Henry and Jack did.

David is a big fan of the crazy straw glasses Santa brought.

And we played some serious games.  

Monopoly and Battleship were two that we got this year.

David is a little Monopoly real estate mogul.

Jack likes to watch.

And tell people how to play.

Henry got a video camera for Christmas, and he loves it.

He's been recording movies and following us around with his camera so he can capture anything exciting we might do.

They got snack sets (plates, bowls, and cups) that they can design.

You draw your design on the templates that came with the sets then send them in to Crayola and they print it on your dishes and send it back.

Henry was ON that project.

I have more Christmas pictures for another post, but must get started taking down my Christmas decorations!