christmas morning fun!

after finishing my christmas morning post, the kids did indeed wake up, and we rushed out the door to nana and pappy's house! after running back to our house (just once) to pick up things i'd forgotten, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast while watching the disney christmas parade (which was filmed while we were at disney!). my mom and brian's grandmother also spent the day with us at brian's parents' house, and it was such a blessing to have them there! after breakfast, we dug in to the stockings and presents right away so that the girls could take a nap. caroline & karina were very happy about opening presents, but ethan refused! he was content to play with the matchbox cars from his stocking and karina's toys that she'd already opened... i should have expected this based on his "one present at a time" attitude the night before! we eventually convinced him to open some of his gifts, but i made a mental note for next year that less is more for ethan! (of course, a lot can change in a year!) this was supposed to be a "light christmas", gifts wise, but we still ended up with boxes and paper all over the living room. nana just can't help herself. :) we eventually sat down to enjoy a delicious christmas lunch while the kids played contentedly with karina's adorable kitchen and ethan's fun train roller coaster. after lunch, we piled the kids on the beanbag chair with cookies and took some priceless cousin pictures... those pictures have earned their own post, so i will share those next. stay tuned for the sugar high!! as much as i wanted to curl up and take a big nap at nana & pappy's after lunch, we packed up and headed home for more celebration with my dad and family.... enjoy this look into our first christmas day in town.

ethan was still waking up a little on our way to brian's parents' house...

caroline watching the christmas parade with pappy

ethan peeking in his stocking designed by mama hawkins

caroline loved her pooh train from nana & pappy!

jeff & kristie gave karina the cutest little kitchen!

ethan was excited to see all of the special mr. potato head parts
that we brought back from disney

pappy could not wait for ethan to open his train roller coaster!
and then ethan could not wait for daddy to put it together! :)

ethan finally decided to open the little einstein's book that we brought back from disney! (you can tell where we did most of our christmas shopping!)

caroline knew just what to do with this phone!

our first christmas dinner at nana & pappy's!

cozy christmas coffee with kristie

what a wonderful day we had, starting new traditions (the kids vote for the cookie thing to be a tradition from now on!) and laughing about memories from christmas past. we did miss family that was not with us, but i know that you all were having a special christmas of your own. praise the Lord for family and friends. it's way too late for me to keep going tonite, so i'll share the cookie post and the rest of christmas pictures real soon. until then....

merry christmas to all, and to all a good night...