Merry Christmas!

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling that great, but I think the kids had a good time and we did listen to my dad read the Christmas story. I keep thinking that we will have the kids act out the Christmas story one of these days, but it just doesn't seem to work with three girls and one baby boy who can't sit still for a minute. We need more boy cousins!Here's the girls in their new pajamas on Christmas Eve. This is not one of our normal Christmas traditions, but I started them last winter and thought now would be the perfect time to actually finish them. It did make for lots of cute pictures so maybe we should start doing it every year.
Christmas morning finally arrived. I had been struck by the dreaded stomach flu a couple of days before Christmas, but woke up on Christmas morning feeling miraculously healed. So I was able to enjoy the excitement of my sweet children as they woke up anxious to see what Santa had left for them. Of course, Emma and Eliza were up quite early, but we had told them that they were not allowed to wake us until 7:00. Actually, they had to wait until 7:30 when my parents, grandmother, brother and sister arrived. They came to our house because I think my dad's missing the old days when he had lots of little kids around to make Christmas morning exciting. It was fun. We watched the kids open all their presents and then had a big breakfast.

Here's what Santa brought:

This is what Ben gave me for Christmas. I even actually used it this morning while I worked out. My sister is so proud that I'm actually becoming so technologically savy (okay, that might be pushing it). I can't say I gave him anything exciting. Most of the gifts I had for him had been puppy related and had to be taken back.Later, we went over to my parent's house to play on their new Wii. Here's the fam bowling: