christmas day!

happy birthday, Jesus!  thank you for coming as a gift from God to forgive our sins and allow us the hope of an eternity in heaven!  such a great reason to celebrate.

since i couldn't get up last night to help, i took some pictures of the tree before the kids came out to open everything.  we still haven't bought new stockings.  we just have the two matt and i used in our first christmas as a married couple.  since maddux doesn't really care, we just used a felt gift bag we have from papa and nana last year.  the goal is to get some for the whole family this year (i am being really picky about the type and style of stocking - that and i am cheap like matt).

uncle derek sent the personalized stuffed animals for the boys - aren't they cute?

we are expecting the opening to take most of the day!

manning was the early bird around 5:45am.  i was still pretty dehydrated and light-headed from my night of illness but duty calls.  he woke up a very happy baby and i had the delight of listening to him babble happily in the dark for about an hour before the other kids started to join us.  (i have been working on uploading some video of him going at it - he even threw in a "ma" here and there for me - but after about 6 attempts over three days, i am giving up - for now.)

the rest of the kids and daddy got up around 7:30 which worked out perfectly because we had planned to skype with grandma and big pop to open presents before they went off to visit their local grandkids.  what didn't work out so great was madelyn excusing herself to go vomit occasionally.  she is seriously the easiest sick kid!  a sore throat brings tons of moaning and complaining, but vomiting is no big deal.  the good news was that she didn't feel poorly and was a delight to be around.

the boys ready to go

madelyn got a personalized doll from uncle derek.

we started with the stockings and as always, the kids would have been thrilled with just the small items they found in them.  maddux was particularly excited about a lid-free cars cup he found in his bag.

madelyn was pretty excited about these hand warmers/boo-boo packs i made for all of the kids.

we had decided that the kids would have to take turns opening gifts and they did!  not only did they, but there was no complaining, not rush to get to the next gift and madelyn kept volunteering to let her brothers go first!  it made for a simply wonderful morning together.  it was really a special christmas for me.

mason was the poser of the morning.  he wanted a picture of everything.

mason finally got his "race track with a race car" that he has been talking about non-stop (more on that in another post).  he wasn't as excited/surprised as i would have expected, but he was really happy.

maddux got a new phone.  he has worn out all of the others.  he is a little old for it but he was really excited about it.

we also skyped with papa, nana and uncle derek to say merry christmas.  and calls to uncle brad and uncle josh and their families.

other than madelyn and i being ill, it was a near perfect day.  we are richly blessed.  i hope that your christmas was filled with love and hope.  love.