jesus' birthday

my whole life i have gotten so excited about christmas that i don't sleep much on christmas eve. i think i finally fell asleep a little after 1am and was up by 6am. it worked out perfect though because i fed mason, got the battery back into the camera (it had been charging over night), and back into bed before madelyn woke up a little before 7am. here is her wake up to christmas morning and opening her stocking. it is pretty long, but she had so many cute little moments that i couldn't edit it down too much.

she probably would have been totally content with nothing but the contents of her stocking. not that we stopped there. santa brought her what she asked him for and the extras in her stocking. i think she got everything she knew existed and more than a few things she didn't. matt said that christmas made him feel like the kids had eight sets of grandparents instead of just two.

we will be working on eliminating some of the old toys this week. i am excited because i found a local woman's shelter that accepts stuffed animal donations. i hate to just throw them away when they have barely been used (if at all) and most places won't take them. back to christmas morning...

for your viewing pleasure, i present a video montage.

i think at least half the presents under the tree were for madelyn. not that mason didn't have his fair share and lucky for him his sister was more than willing to help him open his too. matt and i didn't exchange gifts this year (we exchanged i.o.u.s for when our mortgage is paid off - it was actually a lot of fun), but i found a loophole in our plan where the kids can buy gifts for daddy. although my gifts to daddy were a lot more conservative than the ones daddy helped them pick out for me. madelyn got me a necklace and three charms (a fish, a red bead, and an "i heart mom" block). she complemented me on it all day. the best was at dinner when she said, "i love your beautiful necklace, mom...that i picked out". it might have been the way she said it that cracked matt and i up but we both found it to be hysterical.

mason was really in to his presents. madelyn was more into the wrapping paper and boxes at her first christmas than the presents, but mason really wanted to check out all the new toys and books. he is just a studious sort of guy and likes to take in every detail.

after all the presents were open and mason was down his nap. madelyn got to take the dogs their presents that she picked out for them. little did she know that santa had left an extra surprise for her and mason downstairs. i love that after finding it she still took the time to give the dogs their gifts before playing with hers. she really, really loves the dogs.

after i got our turkey into the oven, madelyn and i got started on decorating our "happy birthday, jesus" cake. we had baked the cake and poured on the green (melon fusion) and red (strawberry) jello for the "poke cake" layers on christmas eve, but still needed to 'ice' it with cool whip and decorate it.

taking a cue from madelyn's excitement from making her 'hand'painted wreath we made a wreath cake for jesus. madelyn sprinkled the green sugar in a circle and then we used red hot-type candy to make "berries" on the wreath. as you will see in the video it was a very good thing that this cake was only for our family. (she usually doesn't lick her fingers when cooking. i don't know what her deal was today.)

madelyn even found time in her busy day to talk on the phone to her grandparents and skype to show them all her new presents. matt just loves how she passes around while talking on the phone and took this picture. i think it is funny because she is holding the phone with her new oven mitt.

she always tells everyone what she sees when talking on the phone. i keep telling her that they can't see what she sees, she needs to give them more details than just, "see it?"

and if you can stand any more, here is a slide show with some of our pictures from the day. merry christmas. love.