Christmas Day

Ben was beat from a busy Christmas Eve, but he was still up at 6:30 Christmas Day to see what Santa brought. Seeing his excitement when he looked over the railing down at the tree and saw his bicycle from Santa was priceless. It made it all worth it.

He immediately wanted to put on his new Spiderman helmet and give his bike a try.

He kept the helmet on all morning. After the bike excitement, he noticed that Santa had sampled our cookies and milk. Dee had noticed way before Ben. ;-)

Liv seemed pleased with her new PB Anywhere chair. Ben got one from Santa at his first Christmas, and Santa was nice enough to bring one for Liv too.

We got Livvie this little Minnie ride-on airplane. But Ben commandeered it immediately and has been riding it around ever since. It makes no difference to him that it is pink and meant for a 12 month old.

Then we opened the rest of the presents. These kids are extremely fortunate (spoiled), and got a ton of awesome gifts for Christmas.

I opened Olivia's gifts for her. She was happy to sit with Grammy and Grampy and watch Ben, while Grampy tickled her. I did put on one of her new hair clips - a gift from her cousin. Red, very festive.

Later, Ben pulled his PB chair into the family room to put it by Liv's and asked me to put her in it with him. So cute. Had to get a picture of that!

Here Ben is pretending to be Santa...wearing his new Spiderman helmet and backpack, with his batman boots (like Santa, he told me) and his green bag around his neck (like Santa's sack), riding Liv's ride-on toy to deliver presents. What a character. Love this crazy kid!

That afternoon, Nana, Papa, Brad, and Denise joined us for dinner. Here is my best attempt at getting everyone in the photo. You can barely make out Olivia next to Grammy, but she is there, shoving food her in mouth, no doubt.

Ben was wired and acting crazy. Brad got to deal with that, since Ben chose a seat between Brad and Nana.

Crazy girl!

Crazy boy. This face is SO Ben. Glad I got a picture of it.

Crazy Dad.

Crazy dog. Begging, of course.

Then we opened more presents... Our house is overflowing. Time for a playroom purge.

Olivia is always very interested in what Ben is up to.

 Chaos!

I'm hoping to be recovered by Christmas 2014.

Christmas Eve 2013

This Christmas was a whirlwind. The late Thanksgiving holiday cut short the prep time before Christmas. Add to that a new job and a new baby, and I definitely felt like I was a step behind this year. But, despite the hectic days, we had a great visit with Grammy and Grampy and had a great holiday.

We kicked things off with a trip to Cheryl and Jay's to spend Christmas Eve with the Jackson clan. Ben and Dad both donned their Santa hats! Livvie too, but I don't have a picture.

At Cheryl's, we had Christmas dinner, hung out with family, and the kids opened way too many presents.

Olivia went through three outfits: first her holiday dress, then her holiday outfit, then some holiday PJs. What's the point of having a girl if you can't dress her up? :-)

We got all the kids together for a photo, but it is beyond hard to get 7 kids between the ages of 15 years and 9 months to look at the camera and smile. So I think this one turned out pretty well, considering.

Kennedy loves a baby! She is not even 2 but is already trying to mother. She kept giving Liv her paci and bottle. So cute!

We wanted a family photo, but Ben refused. So it's just the three of us...

 Me and my love bug!

 Present time. Good lord, the presents...

I think everything was just overwhelming for Ben. Right after presents, he asked to get in his PJs, and then had a little meltdown. But he quickly calmed down and sat quietly with his favorite toy of the night -- Buzz Lightyear. We put Liv in her PJs too and figured we'd leave early, because both kids were done. But then they both found their second wind and were fine. So we hung out until about 8 and then drove home to put the kids to bed and get ready for Santa!

Livvie's Pictures

For Christmas, Livvie's teachers gave us a CD with pictures of her throughout the year. Here is a sample. My baby is growing up so fast!!!