Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

My Favorite Picture from Christmas Morning, this was before presents and after brunch.

I can't believe it's all over, it's always so hard after Christmas, the fun is over and all that's left is the cleaning and putting everything away.

Christmas Eve day was very productive around here, I should have taken before and after pictures of Bug's room. His room has been a disaster for quite awhile now. Every time we get it picked up it's destroyed again within a day or so. So I told him 3 days before Christmas that his room had to be clean if he wanted to be able to bring his gifts into his room. Of course being our son he procrastinated till the last day, so I decided to go in and help him. We made a big pile of everything in his room and then he decided (from his lessons from FLYlady) to divide stuff into 3 piles: keep, donate and toss. We went through everything in his room and I have to say I am extremely proud of my boy. He tossed out a kitchen sized bag one of those big black bags plus an IKEA bag of stuff to donate. We then moved the furniture around to give his more play area. Reorganized his books and closet, by the time we were done he had plenty of room for his new stuff.

Unfortunately that took up a big portion of the day, and since Don and I had decided that the new stereo I had gotten his was too big for his room. I had to hurriedly return it and go find a new one. I ended up finding the perfect one for him at Fred Meyer. We needed one that you could plug and Ipod into, but also had a CD player and radio. I had to buy the display model, but I got a good price on it and it had everything we wanted from JVC.

Bug and Ashley in front of the tree, Christmas Eve.

After that I rushed back to the house finished getting the kids ready and when my Uncle Marting got here we headed out to our Church service. It was beautiful, lots of singing intermixed with the telling of the Christmas story from the bible. It was Ashley's 1st time sitting through a service (even just a short one), she did pretty good.

Uncle Martin, Grandma & Ashley opening Grandma's stocking.

After Church we came home and had pizza (Don had cooked it while we were at church), with the 4 of us plus mom and uncle Martin. After dinner we opened our stockings and got the kids in their new Christmas jammies and got them off to bed. Then I wrapped the last few gifts and watched some Fringe with Don and we headed off to bed.

The kids slept in a bit Ashley got up around 7:30 and woke Bug up shortly after. I got up and got Ashley some oatmeal to tidy her over and then made some Pumpkin muffins. About the time I was getting those in the oven Don woke up and started making Brunch, I had a bit of an upset tummy, so I laid around until it was ready to eat. Then set out the muffins and the fruit salad I had made yesterday. Don made eggs with bacon and sausage. Not as much food as we usually had, but everything was delicious.

After everyone had finished brunch we settled down to opening presents. Bug was Santa's helper this year (with some assistance from grandma) and handed everyone their presents. We start by handing all the presents out and then take turns 1 at a time opening each gift. Ashley got the hang of it fairly quickly and only had to be reminded a couple of times to wait for her turn. Since the kids had more presents then everybody, by far. After 1 time around for everybody we would have the kids take a turn after each of us. So it went mommy, then Ashely then Bug, then daddy then Ashley then Bug and so on. The kids still finished well after us.

Bug opened his stereo 1st, but we kept his big presents for last. He received a bunch of games and books, some snow flingers and some new games and accessories for his Didj. After he thought he was all done, we gave him his Ipod, which he loved. I would have stopped then since he was so busy dancing around to his music, but Don said I had to give him the other one. So we gave him his DSi. He was ecstatic everything else was forgotten for about an hour or so, while he worked through all the different things on it.

Bug showing me his DSi, doesn't he look happy.

Ashley had so many presents that she looked to be buried in them. She got a new vanity to play dress up at in her room. A bunch of learning leapfrog toys, a couch and a baby stroller from grandma and some books and a little people doll house. After we got all the mess cleaned up and Bug had gone to his room to play his game. We set her back down and let her open up all the presents she got from her Bio family, she got some really cute clothes from 1 of her uncles and his family, some baby dolls and accessories from her grandma and a moving/barking dog, lots of books, a baby Ariel and some more clothes from her Aunt and cousin. She was very tired by the time she was done, so I fed her a sandwich and put her down for her nap.

Ashley with Uncle Martin behind her wall of presents.

We all spent the after noon just hanging out, watching some of our new movies, playing games and doing a lot of nothing. It was a great way to spend the day. Always nice to have a day to hang out with the family.