Merry Christmas!

We enjoyed a very nice Christmas at home, just the family. We like to stay home and keep Christmas simple. We enjoy just going at our own pace and spending time together with the children.
This year, to get Christmas eve started, the children got a surprise visit from Santa! The look of surprise on their faces when they opened the door to the big red guy standing outside was priceless! Santa delivered their Christmas pajamas and a very sweet book about the nativity to remind the children of the true meaning of Christmas. We read the book for family home evening that night.

We always act out the nativity with the children. And because we have so many children, we almost have all the parts covered! ;)

The boys, of course, are the wise men bearing gifts. They also subed in for the shepards.

Ethan was our naked Shepard dressed in pink. :) Both of the girls insisted on being Mary. I know that at some point Sarah will have to relinquish the role of the beautiful and kind Mary every once in a while to dear Addie Grace, but for now, peace was better kept just letting Sarah and Addison share the role. (But both of them were absolutely positive that there was only one Mary, we had to get kind of creative to pull that off...)

OUR CHRISTMAS DAY SCHEDULE:

Christmas Eve:

Midnight: Mom and Dad still feverishly putting the last stitches into the final home made gifts for the girls while the children slept with visions of sugar plums.

Christmas Day:

4:30 am: Mom and Dad are awakened to the excited giggles and eager voices of small children. (Our children are notoriously early risers, and this was no exception. How can we send them back to bed when they are so excited?)

6:00 am: Presents have all been opened.

6:30 am: The family sits down for breakfast.

7:00 am: Exhausted, mom and dad head back to bed while the children watch a movie.

9:00 am: The day is much better now that sane amounts of sleep have now been obtained. Ahhh, much better.

We were so tired on Christmas morning, this is the only picture that got taken. (I know, we are horrible) Ethan was so excited to see his gift from Santa, and I was SOOOO excited to see his reaction when he saw it, I knew it was going to be a good one!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!