Christmas Day-2014

Christmas Eve came before we knew it. We were busy, busy all day long delivering the last of the cinnamon rolls to neighbors, wrapping up last minute gifts, and making lots of memories. That night before going to bed, Eli chose which cookies he wanted to leave for Santa and then poured him a nice, tall glass of milk.  

He wrote Santa a letter and then it was time for his Bible story and bed. He made sure to tell Elfis good-bye before he went to sleep because he knew that he wouldn't see him again until next year.

We all went to sleep and before we knew it morning had come and it was time to see what Santa had left for Eli. He was actually kind to us this year and I think it was around 5:30 or 6:00 before he came to get us, which is actually a normal time for us to get up. I snapped a picture of the picturesque scene before all chaos ensued :)

Eli's three gifts from Santa included a guitar, a stuffed Elf that he could actually touch (his words), and a spy watch. Each gift came with a tag straight from the North Pole ;)

Eli was MOST EXCITED about the stuffed Elf that he could touch. Oh my word. That child loves anything stuffed. He immediately christened the elf "Chippy" and carried him everywhere with him the rest of the day. 

After seeing his three gifts, he went though his stocking from Santa. 

Upon discovering the blue glitter glue, I think his exact words were, "Look, Mommy! Santa brought me the glitter glue that you always say you're not going to buy me"! Way to show me up, Santa :)

Practicing on his guitar

Santa always gets Eli three gifts, but Josh and I usually get him a couple of small things from us as well. Josh and Eli have been camping a lot lately and are planning more camping trips in the future, so Josh got Eli this really awesome lantern that you charge by winding the handle. It has an LED light, a USB port, a stand, and lots of other awesome features. I don't know who liked it more, Josh or Eli. 

After opening gifts, we checked to see if Santa had eaten all the cookies and he had. He also left Eli a note telling him thanks.

We noticed something on the other side of the kitchen and discovered Elfis had left Eli a message before heading back to the North Pole with Santa. Eli was so happy to see that Elfis had written him a note telling him good-bye.

My Christmas surprise from Josh and Eli included a new Kitchen-Aid hand mixer, a brand new set of knives, and a candle from Anthropologie (okay, so I bought the candle myself, but I didn't open it until Christmas. I had to find some way to justify spending that much money on a stinking candle even if it does smells HEAVENLY!! Just saying if you haven't smelled the Volcano scent you're missing out...it's yummy!) I was so happy and surprised (not about the candle obviously, but everything else)! 

The aftermath of our Christmas morning looked like this. What a fun and memorable mess! 

While our breakfast casserole and cinnamon rolls warmed up in the oven, Eli changed clothes and started playing with all his toys he'd gotten. Chippy was never far from him all morning long.

The most frustrating but equally satisfying game ever...Marble Run. 

It was a very Merry Christmas for our family and I hope it was for your family as well! This was the picture we sent out to our family that morning wishing them Merry Christmas. We spent most of the day in our jammies/comfy clothes, watching Eli play with his toys, watching Christmas movies, and enjoying time with each other. It was a great day!

That's a wrap until next year! 

Getting Ready for Santa

Every year for Christmas I normally bake a hodgepodge of goodies and pass them out to our neighbors. This year I decided to focus on baking just one thing and giving that away as a gift rather than baking up an assortment of items. The Pioneer Woman's famous homemade cinnamon rolls were just perfect for this! I had such a great time preparing batch after batch of these cinnamon rolls for my neighbors (and making sure we had a couple of batches put away for us as well). Once they were all ready to go, Eli helped me deliver them to everyone on our street. Now our neighbors would have something they could pop in the oven Christmas morning while they were opening gifts. I think I found my new tradition :) 

Yummy, gooey, sticky cinnamon rolls

All wrapped up and ready to be delivered.

Normally we bake cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve, but I didn't want Eli to be up too late that night so we baked them the day before Christmas Eve. Eli got in the festive mood by wearing his Santa jammies and his Santa hat. I think Santa definitely prefers chocolate chip cookies, but those definitely are as fun to bake and decorate so I'm glad he accepts sugar cookies too ;)

Santa's little helpers hard at work

Eli's favorite part...sprinkles!

Ready to go in the oven

All done!

Since we had cookies for Santa out of the way, when Christmas Eve rolled around the only other thing we had left to do to get ready for Santa was to make food for his reindeer. 

Adding the sprinkles

Once the reindeer food was complete, Eli went outside and spread it on the ground for the reindeer. He made sure to put in extra sprinkles to give them the energy they were going to to need to fly all night with Santa. Now it was time to wait for Santa Claus to arrive!

Christmas at Zue-Zue's-2014

We got back from my parent's house late Saturday night. We'd had such a wonderful visit with all of them and I was so glad we'd gotten a chance to spend the day with them.  Next up for us was Christmas with Zue-Zue. When we got to her house we noticed that there were a lot of presents under the tree. Someone had obviously been awfully good this year :) 

Eli was excited about all the gifts and couldn't wait to open his surprises. 

My whole world right here :)

Eli 's first gift was a blue beanbag that he'll keep at Zue-Zue's house. Now he'll always have a comfy place to sit when he goes to visit her. 

Josh's big gift was a cover for his Big Green Egg and table that he'd built. Sadly, it didn't fit :( Josh built his table according to the specifications on their website, but the cover was incredibly short. He had to take it back, but he ended up using that money to get him some new golf shoes so it worked out in the end!

Eli got some new Converse sneakers. If I had it my way he'd have every color of these. I think he looks so cute in them. I love me some Converse :)

One of my favorite gifts was the blanket scarf I had been drooling over on Pinterest. I found it on Groopdealz one morning and sent the link to Zue-Zue. Magically, it appeared in my Christmas loot :)

We all got new comfy blankets and Josh loved his. 

Eli loved his martian from Toy Story that glows in the dark. I think he now has all the main characters. It's crazy how much he loves all the guys from Toy Story and still plays with all of them. 

I also got this "designer inspired" herringbone vest from Groopdealz and I can't even tell you how many times I wore it this past winter. It was definitely on rotation in my closet each week. 

I didn't get a picture of it, but Sue's big gift from us (kind of a birthday gift and Christmas wrapped all in one) was a new vacuum cleaner. She's been lugging a pull around canister type vacuum cleaner around all these years so we bought her an upright one. She's over the moon about it. It was pretty funny because the night she opened it she was pretty much shooing us out of the house so she could use it. 

We had a wonderful Christmas with Zue-Zue. We packed up our stuff and headed back to our house late that night. The next night was Christmas Eve and we couldn't wait to get ready for Santa Claus to come!