Christmas

Merry Be-lated Christmas, friends!  I hope you all had a wonderful time with your family and/or friends celebrating Christ's birth. We had a fabulous holiday and enjoyed every minute.  

On Christmas Eve my in-laws came over and had dinner with us and of course there were presents all around!

After they headed home we kept our tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve.  The kids always get excited even though it's always jammies!  Then we watch the old classic, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." I love that movie!  (A few of these pics in this post are from Instagram, if you have it, you can follow me @itsjustlaine)

 Early Christmas morning I was up rolling out the cinnamon roll dough and attending to the last minute details.  It was fun and I really enjoyed the quiet moments before everyone woke up!

Of course we torture our children and make them wait until we get them from their beds!  We always read the Christmas story together and pray before the present opening begins. 

Can you see the section of our tree with no lights?  Finding a strand of lights a week before Christmas is nigh impossible.  Oh well! ;)

 My hubby started reading Luke 2 and Caleb jumped in on verse 1 and quoted it almost word perfect through verse 18!  We had only "formally" learned a few of the verses.  My mommy-heart was so blessed!  So thankful for his desire to know the Bible!

 One last pic before present opening!! Just dragging out the torture as long as possible....=P

 Lucy was loving the twine and gift tags around the presents...she kept putting them on like necklaces!  

I found the cutest Melissa and Doug puzzle ever for her.  It's little barn doors that open and close with magnetic animals behind it.  She LOVED it!

 "OOoooooooo!!!!"

This is such an adorable hat!  Etsy is awesome. =)

 Lydia finally got her wish for an American Girl doll. She was SO excited.

And I was thrilled because the kiddos and I were able to surprise my hubby with a guitar!  He can play so many instruments and has always wanted to master this one!

Yep, we had planned to get Caleb one too!  Now they can learn together which will be so neat. Daddy's and boys need time to learn and do together. =)

I was completely spoiled this Christmas...a lisa leanoard necklace from my hubby and sweet gifts from my children.  Daddy took them shopping and they thought up the gifts all by themselves! 

Would you like a little tour?  I've not done an official "Christmas Tour" of my home yet.  You've seen my fantel and the Christmas-ified school room in this post, but nothing else.  I just took a few shots on Christmas day so here we go....

(We made snowglobes one day for our advent calendar activity}

$0.50 yummy smelling soap?  Yes, please! =)

Isn't that ornament adorable?!  A family in our church gave it to us...cutest family one I've ever seen!

On Christmas day we have what we call "grazing food" instead of one big Christmas dinner.  We had Russian tea and meatballs in the crockpots, subs, cheese and crackers with summer sausage, cookies, veggies, etc.  It was simple yet delicious and kept me from slaving in the kitchen.  Definitely a win-win situation! 

Here's one pile of the kiddos' loot.  =)  They got some great games, DVD's and books! 

This year in their stockings we gave them each a roll of duct tape and a length of rope, lol. They were SUPER happy!!  They are always making stuff so this was perfect for them. =)

I'm going to sound like a total Scrooge for saying this, but it was so nice this Christmas to not have to go anywhere or even to have any company.  We just relaxed and played with our kids.  Rarely do we ever have an entire day to just be together...that in itself was a great gift!  Since the weather was pretty nice, we built a little campfire outside and spent a few hours out there letting the kiddos run amuck and play with their new toys. 

My Lucy is way too cute with that owl hat on.  I can hardly stand it.  The hat and tiny galoshes combo was about too much for her daddy.  As if she doesn't already have him tightly wrapped around her little pinky!! ;)

Oh, and yes, she scraped her chin on Christmas day.  Poor baby. =(

The evening hours were my favorite...it just seemed so slow.  Reading, watercolor painting with Levi, playing games by the twinkly lights.  For once the day didn't just fly on by which was lovely. We definitely had a merry little Christmas! 

What was your favorite thing about Christmas this year?