Christmas 2010 Part II

Christmas this year was one of my most favorite in memory. Everything about it was perfect. Our children are at such a sweet and fun age...they made it so magical and full of joy. My parents were here and it was a relaxing, peaceful weekend. We even had a white Christmas this year. It was beautiful and now the expectation will be for snow every Christmas in the future :)

We took some pictures after Christmas Eve Mass. For some interesting reason, my children like to use the tripod and timer and will look intently in the direction of the camera, and even possibly smile. This makes me smile.

Love these babies!

After church, pictures and yummy food, we opened all our family gifts.

Emma's look of wonder!

and seriousness...

big excitement over the firetruck from Mommy & Daddy

Emma and her purse

Emma oohs and aahs over a photo of her and her brother

my helpers

This face is priceless

They both love this one...

I love it when my husbands "listens" to my subtle hints. I gave this one earlier this year. You buy ceramic "charms" to velcro at the top. He got me a snowman for the winter.

Connell checking out Daddy's new Milwaukee Tool!

teamwork

Emma loves her Little People house from Mommy & Daddy

Emma's gift to Connell

Grandpa scored points with a vera bradley "hipster" for Grandma :)

Daddy wanted camo pants just like Connell's

walking the alligator from Uncle Chris, Aunt LisaMarie and Cousin Chandler

Emma will be so excited when Mommy starts sewing her pretty dresses. And thanks Mom (in advance) for all the lessons you will be giving me!

Grandma & Grandpa thought Emma needed her own set of wheels!

Connell's gift to Emma

The only dog that we'll be getting for a looooong time. Grandma & Grandpa got this adorable sleeping bag for Connell. He has slept in it (on his bed) every night since then.

Emma had to check it out.

He listened again! Yay! My jewelry tree.

Ready for jammies and bed

Connell's favorite pastime with Grandma. Suck and twirl. Bless his heart. He will have to outgrow it sooner, or later. ;)

Connell selected the cookies for Santa. He gave Santa cookie monster from a birthday party favor he got.

Nite-nite time in the doggy bag!

Santa came...

...and this was the scene out of our front door at around midnight. Beautiful!

oh how excited Connell will be to find this in the morning!

Connell also left some snacks for the reindeer. They left crumbs outside our front door. Connell was amazed!

Santa brought Connell the guitar he so badly wanted.

Choo Choo!

Santa thought Emma would enjoy a little slide...

I know this is off-subject, but a friend shared her recipe for homemade cinnamon rolls. I made them with a quiche for brunch Christmas morning. Best. Brunch. Ever. A new tradition!

back to topic, she LOVES the slide!

This was taken the morning after Christmas. It snowed throughout Christmas day. We were home all day in the warm house in our jammies. We had a delicious dinner: shrimp scampi, filet steaks with gorgonzola butter, green beans with brown sugar and bacon, and tater tot casserole (kids love it). And LOTS of cookies!

As I said at the beginning of the post, a perfect Christmas! This year we are so mindful of all of our incredible blessings...our children, our families, Tim's job, our friends, our health... We are so thankful that our Savior was born and gave His life for us so that we are able to live

this amazing life!