Santa's Been Here! Santa's Been Here!

Okay, I had to lead off with the under the tree Christmas morning picture, but now we're gonna flashback a little to the previous night....

Let me start off by saying, it's sooo easy to romanticize Christmas. I was really looking forward to doing all the "fun stuff" with the boys, you know....putting up the tree and decorating the house, seeing Santa, buying gifts for grandparents, wrapping presents, making cards for our baby-sitters, making candy, baking cookies for Santa....REAL cookies, the homemade kind. But it seemed like, especially this year, that a lot of that fun stuff turned into stressful stuff. Well....most of it just didn't happen and that stressed me out I guess. I'm going to work VERY hard to try to set more realistic expectations next year so I don't make myself miserable. Sooo...anyway, enough with my little tirade about the stresses of Christmas. Here are the boys perched on the counter with the cookies that Chad bought from some fundraiser that we threw in the oven at 8:30 on Christmas Eve Evening. That's my arm on the left...thank goodness you couldn't see my face. I seriously was as near to a panic attack as I've ever been. NOOOOT pretty. (side note....I think Grant looks frightenly like my brother in this picture....Michael? is that YOU?!?!?)

Landon made the traditional trek around the corner from the kitchen to the hall table where we leave our goodies for Santa....and yes....those are new pictures on the wall. Go me!

Here's something new this year: Landon made reindeer food. So before we tucked them into bed, him and I stood on the step and threw it into the snow drifts that were forming in our front yard.

When the boys were all nestled snug in their beds with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads...a visitor stopped by the house. Chad and I were glad we were still up to see the big guy himself! That's a perk of procrastinating and not wrapping gifts until Christmas Eve....if you stay up late enough, maybe you'll catch a glimpse. Thanks, Santa for stopping by! We were so happy to see you!!

So at almost 7:30 Christmas morning, I hear the pitter patter of little feet in the hallway, and they're tippy toeing very slowly...then I hear them RUNNING like a heard of elephants back to our room. Landon grabbed me and said, "Mommy! Mommy! Guess what?! Guess what ?! Santa's been here! Santa's been here! Get up, get up, get up, get up!" I grabbed my camera and followed him to Grant's room where he was a little more tender in his announcement, but just as sweet. Sorry for the darkness at the beginning...

After I pull the stumbling Grant from his crib we come out to the living room to find Landon nose against the glass of the living room window, where he says, "it really is Christmas time" oh so softly. He kept asking when it was going to snow....and perfectly Christmas Eve, we got all kinds of white stuff!

Landon tore into his gifts from Santa: Lego Spiderman, a new bath robe, and Scooby Doo Abracadabra Doo. Thankfully he didn't seem to mind too much that Santa didnt' come through with Lego Baseball or Football.

Then Landon helped Grant open his gifts from Santa: Baseball Guys and new sippy cups!

A few presents from Mommy and Daddy were opened: a Fredbird floor puzzle, some books, Night at the Museum DVD, and a Blues Hockey set.

Here's me and Grant. Christmas morning is a shocking experience when you're one I guess.

Then Landon helped Chad and I open our gifts from him and Grant.











Here's Chad opening one of his favorite gifts of the year...and turns out one of the family's favorite gifts as well. Get ready for some high quality entertainment on the blog. We're talkin' the best videos of the year comin up.