Christmas 2013

I suppose I ought to feature Christmas on the blog before it rolls around again and I lose the chance! We had a blast this year with our cute little family. It was a quiet cozy Christmas at home with just us and it was SO relaxing. I don't even think we got around to opening presents until the afternoon, but no one really minded. We had a big breakfast and lots of yummy food to snack on all day. We read A Christmas Carol as a family, and in general just enjoyed being together. Here are all of our little ones decked out in their Christmas pajamas.

 A few days before Christmas the kids' great Grandma Judy sent a package for us. We got excited and opened the package early. It was a fun way to break up the wait.

 It was the year of Legos for these kids and they all loved it! The boys also got a couple of other sets from their Grandpa and Grandma Morgan. (I didn't snap pictures of either of the grandparents gifts, because we opened them all via video chat. It was so fun for the kids to do that and I think really helped them understand whom the gifts were from.)

One of the favorite gifts given for me this year was for all of our school-aged kids. They each got their own fountain pen. Fancy schmancy! They got right to work giving them a go.

 This baby was too adorable for words. He watched the big kids well enough to get the hang of this present opening thing down quickly! Being baby #6, his first Christmas wasn't anything fancy, (sippy cups and bathtub toys) but as we were expecting it didn't matter. The boxes and wrapping paper were more fun anyway!

 Miss Claire was over the top excited about her Snow White dress. Each of our girls have a favorite princess. Hers has always been Snow White. She has the pajamas, and a bedtime doll of her. Emma loves Cinderella, and Paige who is slightly less loyal to her favorites, is currently on an Ariel kick. She won't watch the movie however because Ursula is too scary. We even have to skip her song when listening to the soundtrack!

 I could not resist posting this picture! Don't you want to smooch that face?!! The big girls were in dire need of new coats this year, and mostly so Emma could benefit from their hand-me-downs. We did have the slightest skiff of snow to try them out with. The adorable knit owl hats you see poking out of the coats were a labor of love from my niece Lexi, in each child's favorite color. Still working on trying to get a decent shot of all of the kids wearing them at once, but they LOVE them and insist on wearing them when we get a chance to go out. Heck, they wear them around the house!

These were just my most favorite shots from my camera. Soon I hope to post some pics from the kids' point of view! Those will feature more of the fun grandparent gifts.