"I want it to be Christmas!!!"

In the usual fashion, I'm just NOW posting Christmas pictures! But hey... It could be worse. It could be Easter. We had the most amazing "just our family" Christmas this year in Nebraska and I loved every minute of it. On Christmas Eve we ate dinner with some of our new friends and their little ones. Noah found himself surrounded by girls once again! It was great though because the kids entertained themselves watching "A Muppet Christmas Carol" while the adults played a rousing game of Settlers of Catan. Man, we love that game. :) Kevin won, of course. This is the usual outcome, although my sister Erin swears that it's been HER turn to win for about the last five years (Dont' worry... I'm still keeping track, Boo!). The evening ended by Noah going to bed, and Kevin and I watched a few hours of the show Jericho on dvd. My friend Caroline got us hooked by lending us the first and only complete season. Somebody... ANYBODY... PLeeeeease pick that show up and bring it BACK!!! Sci-Fi channel? No? Okay. Moving on... :)

Christmas morning we woke up around 7 or 8 and brought Noah downstairs to see what Santa had brought. In his case, Santa brought a Kawasaki little trike (what we knew as a Big Wheel when we were kids) and it had red bows all over it. He promptly removed these.

But actually, it was funny the way he entered the room. Kevin and I didn't expect this. He saw the furniture moved around and the Christmas tree that had been on the kitchen island was now on the floor and there were strange things everywhere. So he got scared and clung to Kevin's leg, refusing to go any further! Kev finally picked him up and put him on his bike. Everything was just fine after that, except that he wanted to open all his presents while sitting ON the bike.

It was a challenge, but he was up for it. We tore into presents for about an hour and then it was play time. I don't think Noah knew what to do first. I remember that feeling. :)

Our little Santa:

Our tree!

More Christmas morning fun:

Noah immediately put Grandpa and Grandma's gift to good use!

The rest of the day was SO relaxed and before we knew it Noah was headed to bed once more. BUT not without all his new things! Yeah, fortunately his bike does not fit in his crib with him or he would have considered it...

Here are just a few pictures of one of our family traditions. Actually, my dad started this one. He served a mission in Germany and came back with the most amazing little wooden carousel with the manger scene in the middle and a golden star at the top. The base has four small candles on it and when you light the candles, it turns the wooden fan at the top and the little figures spin. We would light this every Christmas Eve and LOVED it. I remember one year Sean and Erin wore their little sunglasses while the candles were burning. Yeah... I have pictures! So when Kevin and I got married, we bought our family a Christmas carousel (seriously, I can't think of what it's really called). It's not as authentic as my dad's, but we still light it on Christmas Eve. This year, Noah decided to wear my hat and scarf while we did it. :) Check out his silly expression... funny boy!

Hope you all had an amazing Christmas, wherever it took place. And here's to a brand new year!!! I'll end this blog with just three little words that mean oh so much:

CHRISTMAS EVE JAMMIES!!!!!!!!


Love,
Nicole
@>->--