A Family Christmas

Last year we moved to Indiana 2 weeks before Christmas so we did Christmas alone, but this year we got to be with family which was such a fun change!  Here is Tommy & Whitney in front of our tree on Christmas Eve right before we left to go to Ben's house.  They aren't usually that helpful at packing or cleaning, but I took this picture & then told them to load the presents in the car so we could go & I've never got the car loaded faster!

Right when we got to St.Louis Ben had Christmas Eve dinner ready for us.

Kids table:

Adult table: It was fun to have my Dad there. I haven't spent Christmas with him in at least 10 years.

Here is the cousins before we opened our 1 Christmas Eve present.  I love seeing so many stockings all in a row!

We went to see lights afterwards at Santa's village. They had some cute displays...

...and A LOT of junky lights strung everywhere.  I wasn't a fan, especially because it cost $20, but the kids were excited & I guess that's what counts!

 My favorite memory of Christmas Eve this year was Tommy at 11 o'clock at night:  we got back from viewing lights & he was so excited for Santa to come that he was jumping all over the bed with a giant grin & chanting something. We were worried he'd be up late, but the instant we turned off the lights he konked out.  It made us laugh :)

Opening our stockings the next morning:

I knew Tommy would be happy to get "tracks" from Santa, but I had no idea how badly he really wanted them.  He has practically been permanently attached to them ever since!

Tommy & Whitney helped each other open all their gifts. I thought it was cute they didn't mind the other grabbing for their new toy.

Whitney & Evie are 9 months apart & I see a friendship blooming already. They were really cute together the whole time we were there.

 We had quite the lazy Christmas this year which is very different from what we are used to so it almost didn't feel like Christmas, but it was a nice break for both of us.

 Here is Whitney & all her gifts.  She got A LOT thanks to Kmart clearance.  I sort of felt like she needed all these anyway because up until now she's just played with Tommy's cars & toys.  Her favorite toy (besides the house of course) is the stroller with Minney inside.

 She doesn't really get that this part is supposed to be a doll house so she has fun laying in it & pulling the shelves off so she can play peek-a-boo through the windows.  I put the dollhouse part together while Whitney was napping one day & Tommy was my helper.  The whole time we were getting all the windows in place Tommy was so excited & kept saying he was going to play in Whitney's house.  Finally when I put the door in he looked very disappointed & declared "I'm too big" & lost interest in being my helper.  Later when I got it all finished I asked him if he thought Whitney would like it & he looked at me with another look of dismay & said "No, Whitney is too big"... so who knows how long it'll be before it is an actual dollhouse!  (Later when Whitney opened the house part Tommy was much more excited!)

 Here is Tommy with all of his presents.  His favorite toy when not obsessing over his new trains & tracks is pushing bubble Mater all over like a wild man.

 Here is me & my presents. (Yup, purposely placed the ipad in front of my 7 1/2 month belly!)  Vic also got me a new CD player installed in my car & that is a photo backdrop behind me.  I guess last year he felt I got him way more than he got me so he went way over the top this year spoiling me!

While we were in St. Louis Katie also dropped by for a day & helped watch the kids while we went to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  I was really excited for this since I love their Christmas songs, but I had no idea they were a bunch of 80's rockers!  We still really enjoyed about 1/2 of it (the Christmas part), but could have done without the rest (nasty long haired head bobs & overweight leather dancing)!

...and if you weren't one of my very few who got a Christmas card (went kind of lazy this year since I almost didn't do one) then here is our cuties all dressed up!

 I hope everyone reading this had an amazing Christmas as well!!! :)  We miss all of our dear Idaho/Utah friends & family and hope to be moving that way next year!