Christmas Day

The kids were super excited this Christmas morning and were wide awake and downstairs before it was even daybreak. 

Dan loved his ninja costume! He may be almost 7 years old, but this boy still loves to play dress up. He's been asking for a black ninja costume lately, like Westley from Princess Bride. 

Anabella's big gift was an American doll, a "Truly Me" doll with blond hair and blue eyes just like her! 

Dan loves Legos, so his big gift (besides more legos) was this Lego storage block, which we just finished organizing tonight. What a great invention!! 

This girl has such a giving spirit. While she loved opening, she could hardly wait for Mom and Dad to have their turns, too. 

She opened this gift addressed to her and Mommy - Mommy & Me mani/pedis!
Good job, Daddy & Dan!!

I love these beautiful frames the kids made at Home Depot in December. 

Trying out my "big" gift -a new camera lens for the Nikon!

New mousepad for Daddy to take to work. 

Practicing with the new lens....see how it blurs backgrounds.

Granny's was a whirlwind as usual and before I knew it, the kids had opened their gifts! So....no picture of that. 

I did get this one of Granny with my cousin Leslie's kids, Colton & Peyton.
We were there a few hours, from around 11-1, but I hardly got a single picture.

After Granny's we went to Mom and Dad's where we opened gifts and had Christmas dinner with Allie and her kids. Anabella was excited for her Cabbage Patch Baby So Real doll. 

Hayden, always a cutie.
So many of the other pictures I took were so blurry. I like the new lens, but it probably wasn't best to try it out on Christmas day. Unless I was taking close ups and very careful with framing, the pictures didn't turn out very good. 

Both of the kids got tablets and were so excited! 

I wish I had more pictures but I guess we were too in the moment. Chip had the camera while Allie and I were opening and if you think my pictures with the new lens were blurry, you should see the ones he got! 

As always, Christmas Day was a memorable one and always leaves me feeling so thankful for all that we have. Gifts are nice and all, but most of all I'm thankful for the family we have to spend the holidays with and the memories we make together. 

As in years past, we always teach the children the real message of Christmas and begin (Christmas Eve) and end Christmas Day with The Story of Christmas explaining why we celebrate Christmas and the reason we gift gifts in the first place.