christmas eve

christmas eve was off to a great start with the delivery of homemade cinnamon rolls!  we have some sweet friends who made and then delivered them - and they were delicious!  we made some eggs, bacon and hash browns to go along with them and had a nice long breakfast.

the kids (and i) were really excited to open presents.  matt and i had discussed letting them open their christmas jammies after lunch this year so that i could wash them before they wore them tonight (they felt almost sticky with flame retardant - i am guessing).  madelyn got fleece polka-dot pants and a shirt, mason got 'yetty' pants and a thermal shirt, maddux got x-ray style jammies (picture below) and matt and i just got navy sleep pants.  i couldn't get a theme going this year - maybe i will make them next year...

madelyn giving matt a neck rub and maddux 'helping' with his feet.

matt had to go into work in the late afternoon, so he got to spend quality time with the kids by making their gingerbread houses!  i just got a kit that had four little houses in it.  it worked out really well for each kid to make their own instead of all working together on one.

all maddux heard was 'cookie' and dug right in! oops.

 matt ended up having to do most/all of the construction on his own.

while they were working on the gingerbread houses, i thought i should probably take a few pictures of manning by the christmas tree - this being his first christmas and all.  oh the fourth.  madelyn's pictures are in a christmas dress, mason's in a cute sweater, maddux dressed as santa, manning's are in the random jammies he slept in with spit up on the arm.  oh well, the thought was there.  right, manning? (please forgive mommy.)

 

and then i let him take a stab at opening his christmas jammies.  he really liked the paper but was more interested in me and his brother, mason, who came around to 'help'.  once we got his jammies open he sat there chewing on them for at least 30 minutes quite happily.

and now it was time to decorate the gingerbread houses.  matt thought that it should be my job.  of course he did.  he had dumped out most of the icing trying to get them together so there wasn't really enough left to ice the roofs.  it was quite a mess to say the least.  the kids had fun though.  they weren't pretty, but they didn't care one bit.

i thought that i should at least be in one picture for the day

maddux' compromised wall proved to be unable to bear the weight of his decorations.

since maddux' had already fallen apart and they had already had lunch, we let the kids tear into them as soon as i took the pictures above.  i think mason was the only one who actually ate any gingerbread.  and now that they were good and sugared up, matt headed into work.

manning sitting around

once manning was down for his nap, the rest of the kids and i snuggled up to watch pollyanna.  i loved this movie and thought it would be a nice way to pass the afternoon.  (we picked up a few movies from the library on friday to enjoy this week.  the other night we watched the incredibles with daddy.)  i was actually surprised how into it they all were.  after about 30 minutes or so, madelyn asked to go take a nap - sure.  and then mason went in to join her after about another 30 minutes.  maddux and i finished out the movie and everyone was still asleep. 

it was getting close to when we needed to start eating dinner so that i would have enough time to get everyone cleaned up and to church.  matt was just going to meet us there because we wouldn't make it on time if we had to wait for him to get home.  i jumped in the shower and started getting ready.  everyone was still asleep about 30 minutes before we needed to leave. i was able to get madelyn up and moving but mason was not interested at all - he was in a very deep sleep.  i had to start nursing manning or there would be no chance at all of getting there.  and then it started snowing.  matt called to say that he was leaving the office and i told him that we just weren't going to make it.  if he had been here to help me we might have had a chance, but there was just no way i was going to get everyone fed and dressed in time.  so he came home instead.

last night we had also discussed the idea of letting the kids give out the gifts they had chosen for each other so that their $3 gifts that they were so proud of did not get lost in some of the more exciting (and expensive) gifts on christmas morning.  after dinner everyone got bathed and into their new jammies and shared their gifts to each other.

maddux' jammies seemed perfect for him.

mason stopped to say "cheese" any time i pointed the camera in his direction.

we are so glad that we did it this way!  the kids were all so excited to give their siblings the gifts they had selected especially for them.  it was a really sweet way to spend the evening.  unfortunately, around this time is when i started to feel poorly.  matt got the kids down by himself for the most part and i was throwing-up in our bathroom.  ugh.  this was not really ideal at all.  i was so weak that i had to have matt put out the rest of the presents and stockings.  i love that sort of thing so it just shows how rough i was feeling.  i was praying it was food poisoning.  love.