Christmas recap

Christmas was a BLAST!  We had such a great time spending the week in North Carolina with Stephen's folks!!  We celebrated our family Christmas the Saturday before we left, couple that with actual Christmas day and then opening gifts with my parents after we were home and the kids ended up with 3 days full of presents! 

"Christmas Eve" night at our house!

The kids open "Christmas Eve pajama's" each year.  They are so stinkin' cute!

Christmas morning traditions....cinnamon rolls, hot chocolate and reading the incredible story of Christ's birth before we get to the presents.

Our cuties before Candlelight service at church!

Testing out one of their Christmas gifts, dual screen portable DVD player with headphones!

Christmas morning!

 Ellie's favorite gift!

Max loving his newest DS game

 Fun Grandpa and Grandma traditions!  Ellie got to plant her very own "Christmas tree" in their yard just like Max!  Max's has grown a TON since we planted it two years ago.

 And of course the tradition of marking the beam.  Max has grown about two and a half inches since last Thanksgiving!  And see Ellie's little mark way down on the right beam?!  Can't even think about how tall the two of them will be next year!

Now we're home and Christmas decorations are put away :(  But it was such an amazing holiday season having BOTH our kiddos home!  Ellie's still a bit unaware of the whole meaning of Christmas, though she did get good at singing "Happy Birthday Jesus", so next year will kinda be like a first again as we get to really share with her why we celebrate!!