It's over. All that build up with finding the perfect gifts, searching for that elusive toy, decorating the house, cooking the yummy dinner(s), stressing over cleaning the house and it's all over in a flash. Then it's time to take everything down again and re-clean the house since it now looks like a paper and toy factory exploded in it. Christmas should last more than one day. Jesus deserves a longer birthday anyway. :)
As is tradition in our family, we do Christmas Eve with the in-laws. This year was at my younger BIL's house so it wasn't a long drive at least. We voted earlier this year to draw names for the adults and just buy for the kids. And did they ever! My truck was STUFFED with toys. I think everyone went overboard since they only had to buy for one adult.
Bella's Christmas dress #1. Got it from Goodwill for $2. :) It's from TCP.
*sleeping* in her new Tinkerbell sofa-bed
Could this child give me a genuine smile instead of a posed one?
We got home late on C. Eve so we put the kids right into their jammies (Bella was already in hers before we left) and into bed. The boys have worn these same pj's for 3 Christmases now. Now that's a bargain! They ended up being so big when I bought them that they've just lasted a while. Sadly I don't think they'll make it to a 4th Christmas so I'll just let them wear them the rest of the year. If they still fit next December then all the better!
Christmas morning we slept in. Yep- slept in! We told the boys they were not to leave their room unless they had to use the bathroom and to wait for us to go get them. And they listened! It was after 8 am and I had to wake poor Bella up so she could get in on the fun. Thanks to the awesome Amazon sales and all my bargain hunting mamas online, the kids had plenty to open without me breaking the bank.
Christmas Morning. It was bright as we had just opened the blinds.
I didn't blog about my Sears fiasco earlier this month but I fell in love with a My First Kenmore kitchen set for Bella. I was able to buy them online only to get an email the same night that the fridge was out of stock. I called cust. svc and they said there wasn't a single fridge left in the entire US. WTH?! Long story short I got on my bargain board forum and the awesome ladies there told me they'd spotted it at Kmart stores. I called my store just 5 min down the road and they had one left. Since it was already closing time for them I had to wait until the next morning and it took them 20 minutes and 2 people to load it up but I finally got that sucker in my truck and home and for $35 LESS than what I was going to buy it at Sears for. It took us 1.5 hrs to put together the stove and at least 2 hrs for the fridge but they are adorable and so worth the effort.
You can't see it that well but there's a pretend ice maker/water in the freezer door. All the knobs click on the stove and the timer really works.
Felt pizza.
You can see some of the felt foods I've made. Egg, bacon, cheese, lettuce (under cheese) and orange slices. Above are the pancakes (one plain, one with butter & syrup), oversized poptart (my 1st food I tried), chicken leg and in the baggie is some pasta- bowtie, noodles, and ravioli. I've already taken the bowtie and noodles away until she's a bit older.
The fridge and stove set I got was a hit! I made a bunch of felt foods to go with it and we found some pink metal pots/pans at Sears and a child size apron and oven mitts at Target's $1 Spot. Along with the wood food she got from her uncle and grandpa she has plenty to play with as do the boys! Santa brought her a Maclaren stroller for her babies. She loves all her new dolls and the stroller. She's already tried to sit in it (her cousin did as well) and thankfully it's held up!
The boys got more Legos, books, movies, games and Glo Doodles. Those things are COOL! Santa got a really good deal on them too. ;) I love playing with it as does Bella. DH bought me my first set of pearls, some Godiva dark chocolates and some Yankee Candles. He knows what I like! He got some new BluRay movies and a computer processor he had asked for.
My dad came over for breakfast and to see the kids. We don't see him that often so it was really nice to have him here. After he left it was time to cook yet again and clean some more. Due to an illness in the family it was a last day decision to hold my family's dinner at my house. It was so last day in fact that we decided to do an appetizer dinner instead of our normal feast. It was okay but it just wasn't the same. We missed having the big dinner with my grandparents and some other family there.
Okay so on to the rest of the photos. Ready?
In the stroller is another fave gift- My Pal Violet by Leapfrog. You can plug it into the PC and customize the songs, child's fave animal and food and add their name! So cute!
Christmas dress #2- also from Goodwill for $2. Too bad the shoes had to cost $40. Ouch!
And finally...me. In all my don't-take-my-picture-I wasn't-ready glory. You can at least see my pearls. :) There's a small star in the middle and a larger pearl hangs off of it.
That's it. The end. On to the next year. 2010 here we come!
