Christmas 2015

I actually did not take a huge amount of pictures this year.  Especially on Christmas day.  I really just wanted to focus on being "in the moment" with my family and not all about taking pictures and being behind the camera.  That being said, I decided to combine everything Christmas into one big post!

Every Christmas Eve, Gigi and Poppy come over to eat a big dinner, open presents, and do all of our Christmas Eve traditions with us.  It's always very relaxed, but also some of my favorite time.  Christmas is *almost* here and there is so much excitement in the air, but we're all at home and more relaxed with things.  I love it.

Waiting for Gigi and Poppy to come!

I love this!

I adore my babies!

This was our 14th Christmas together!

The first thing we did was open presents.  What do you do after you open presents?  You play!

Our big, Christmas Eve dinner spread!

Even Sparkle knew what the day was really about.  On her last day here, we found her in the manger cuddling baby Jesus.

After baths, it was time for all of our favorite traditions!

First up - baking cookies for Santa.  At our house, Santa loves snicker-doodle cookies.  I went ahead and made the dough earlier in the day and let the cookies chill in the refrigerator.  That way, it was all ready for the kids to dip in the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Cooper had his own tray of Cookies with Gigi, and LL and I did the other tray.

While the cookies baked, we watched How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

After the movie, Daddy read The Night Before Christmas

My favorites!

We had a few last things before bed: putting out cookies for Santa, putting out our Santa key, and sprinkling out oats for the reindeer!

Sleeping and dreaming of Christmas!

Santa came!

Awake and ready to go see what Santa brought!

After we opened presents, we took a break for breakfast - reindeer pancakes!

After breakfast, Oma and Opa came over to do Christmas with us.  They stayed through a big Christmas lunch, and then left right before nap time.  After nap, we all got ready to head over to Grammy and Pop's for the last round of Christmas!

One of my favorite presents - the two best days of my life!

They day after Christmas, we spent all day at home, making messes and playing with our toys!  Both kids got sleeping bags and pillows that they are in love with!

They are quite possibly the cutest things ever in their new robes!

Pirate headphones!

It took years, but this girl finally loves to play dress up!

We had a fantastic Christmas!  It just keeps getting better and better every year!