'twas the night before christmas...

christmas eve was a busy and wonderful night for us! brian spent most of the day in the backyard finishing up the kids' big christmas surprise while i kept the kids busy inside as they asked about daddy all day long. that evening, we took part in our church's beautiful christmas eve service. i was so happy to have my mom and grandmother join us as we celebrated the incarnation of Jesus Christ through lessons and carols. after the wonderful candlelight ending, we headed back to our house for a late dinner and the opening of presents from my mom and grandmother.


as you can see, ethan was very happy to help caroline open her big present from gram. caroline actually opened up a little van first, and we told her there were people inside the big box. as ethan pulled out the big dollhouse, caroline kept asking for the people. forget the really cool dollhouse with all the cute sounds! just give the girl some people for her CAR! (she finally got one of her own!) she did think the house was pretty neat, too, but she especially loved the van.


after all the presents were opened, the kids were content playing with their new toys. caroline was busy figuring out the workings of her little van's doors, and i looked over to find her jamming members of her little people nativity set into the van. the daddy and the mommy that came with the dollhouse were already taking up 2 of the 3 seats, and i watched her put joseph in the last seat. as she picked up mary, i joked, "i'm sure mary would have loved to have ridden to bethlehem in a van instead of a donkey!" caroline tried so hard to make a place for mary in the van, but she got frustrated and looked up at me. playing on the nativity story, i told her, "there's no room in the van!" well, without hesitation, she grabbed joseph and mary and chunked them out of the van. ha! it was probably funnier in person, but we got a good laugh out of her reaction.


ethan was so excited to get another train! it's actually an auto carrier for his lionel train set, and as you can see below, he and daddy got right to work loading the cars onto his new train car.



ethan's favorite present from gram was not the train, though. it was a cook book! ever since caroline got her kitchen for her birthday (which i keep meaning to blog about...), ethan has been asking for a cook book. he uses various little books as "cookbooks", and every time he sees me following a recipe in the kitchen, he says sadly, "i don't have one of those..." (oh, son, you are so deprived!) so my sweet mom made a little cookbook for him with very basic "recipes" based on the food the kids have in their kitchen. we're talkin' hot dogs, pbjs, salad, and cookies. it really is so cute, and ethan was thrilled beyond words! look at this picture of him hugging the cookbook! oh, the simple joys! :) i'll have to get some pictures of him cooking one of these days... the kids have been making us cookies every morning, and i had to laugh the other day because ethan just brought me icing... no cookies. :) that boy knows what his momma likes! :)

we enjoyed having my grandmother in town from before thanksgiving until after christmas! during that month, i planned on having her over all the time and taking tons of pictures of her with the kids. well, being sick for the first two weeks of her visit was not on the ideal hospitality agenda, but it happened... so after spending the next week catching up on life, i realized that her time here was passing by quickly!! we did get to see her fairly often, and i even cooked for her twice. then on christmas eve, i realized that i had not taken one single picture of her with the kids. in a month! you know that is really not like me at all. so i tried to make up for it on christmas eve. mind you, by the time we got home from christmas eve service, ate dinner, and opened presents, it was getting to be near 10:00. not the ideal time to subject your weary, toy-crazed children to pictures on the couch. but of course i tried.

i first attempted a four generation girl picture. no really, caroline was happy. she just looks like she was screaming her head off... oh wait, she really was screaming her head off. man, she was so much more cooperative the last time we tried this shot! but we'll have a good laugh at this when she's 13 or so.


so i thought i could get ethan to sit with grandmother for some pictures. but it was too late to bribe with chocolate. well, it was really just altogether too late. so this was really a losing battle. below, you can see the progression of ethan's insistence to sit away from grandmother to his pathetic excuse for a hug. oh well, grandmother got a big kick out of it, and at least we were all laughing by the end of it.


i did manage to get one picture of grandmother and the kids being perfectly still... because they were printed out on paper for her photo clock. i'm telling you, i'm so glad i found those clocks months ago!


we loved spending time with grandmother, and i hope she enjoyed getting to know the kids a little more. they have been asking about her so much since she left, so i am hoping she'll want to visit again (or just come and STAY!) after amelia is born!

more christmas pictures to share... i'm getting close to the end...