I am posting all of the pictures we took on Christmas Eve. We had a great time celebrating with an old friend we know from Corpus and her sweet family, who allowed us to crash their party. It was so nice to be able to see Diane and her family (here in the unfriendly northeast, where we don't have many friends : ) and have a fun celebration. Everyone was so nice and the food was amazing. The kids had a great time playing with all of the visiting grandchildren and we may have met a future babysitter for us here in Alexandria. Bonus.
After a family wide talent show (which was great) and acting out the nativity, where Leah was quite an inspired angel, we headed home and everyone received their matching pj's.
I'm not sure how much Ian realized about Christmas, but Leah was super excited. It's really fun to be a parent for Christmas. I was almost too excited to sleep as we went to bed that night.
Leah was funny on the way home from our Christmas Eve party. I asked her if Santa was going to come bring her presents. She said yes. Then I asked her what he would bring. She said "Toys, musics, and boxes." I think she may have watched one too many Christmas movies this year. Michael is pretty determined to introduce her to all of the claymation Christmas movies, even the creepy ones.
The kids ended up not getting up Christmas morning until 8am, which made for a pretty hectic day for us. Church was at 11, so we hurried through opening gifts, then rushed to get ready for church, suffered through an insane Ian at church, and ran home so I could get the ham into the oven in time for dinner. Busy day!
I got a *good idea this year to make a play kitchen for Leah and Ian. I saw some really cute pictures online and decided to take it on about 2 weeks before Christmas. I had an old toy chest that we had acquired (this is just a fancy word for me seeing a craigslist ad for free and running out to pick it up before Michael could get home from work and tell me to stop bringing junk into the house. I might be a hoarder) and I decided this was the perfect project for it. It took lots of work and only a handful of trips to the hardware store. In the end, I'm trying to embrace the imperfections and I hope it will be something the kids will get lots of playtime out of. It was fun to do. Maybe next year I can start a little earlier than 2 weeks before Christmas. (Of course, next year, I'm sure I'll just hire someone else to fill my Santa's workshop with goodies since we'll be in China. Should be interesting...)
We wrapped it up in a blanket and the kids pretty much ignored it until I pointed it out as the last present to Leah and then she went at it.
They both started playing immediately. 
It has only caused about 63 fights between these two since Christmas morning. I thought new toys for Christmas were supposed to help keep the kids happy longer. Not so much here. Maybe when we get them off the sugar they will be better.
