Merry Christmas, a little late...

Christmas was a wonderful experience this year. The boys would have let us sleep in, but we got a phone call around 8 am from DeAnn, to wish us Merry Christmas. Her household had been up since 6 am, presents were already opened, and breakfast was already eaten. I guess the boys and I have been spoiled because we get up after that time every morning. Boy are we lucky or what. So, back to story. Because the phone rang, Matthew decided to wake up. And he came out into the living room and, boy did his eyes light up. Santa had left him a wooden train set and a little people barn set. He got right down on the floor and played with the train. Unfortunately, Santa brought Lincoln Logs for Benjamin, and he set up a few structures, so guess what Matthew wanted to do. You guessed it, he wanted to push them right over. So I called to Chad to wake up Benjamin. Not a very happy camper, that is, until he saw what Santa had brought. Then his eyes got big and he wanted to play with the Lincoln Logs and Legos.

As you can see, some of the structural integrity of the buildings has been compromised already, so action had to be taken. Benjamin had to be woken up.

The above is the train set Santa brought for Matthew.

After a couple of inches of snow fell, my good friends, the Mennears, Susan, Eric, and Nicole came over to have breakfast and watch the boys open presents. They really wanted to be in Boise watching their grandchildren and nieces and nephews open presents, but the weather was not cooperating, so we became their surrogate family instead. I made a french toast casserole from the Lionhouse cookbook that Chad gave me last year for Christmas, and all I can say about that is "yummo!!!!" It was so decadent; it tasted more like dessert. And it was easy to make because most of the work was done the night before and made little cleanup in the morning. And, french toast is one of my all time favorite breakfast foods, so how could I go wrong there.

The boys had a good time opening presents. Matthew especially loved to rip the paper off. He really didn't care about what was in the package as long as he could rip some more paper. And we let him. We might have outdid ourselves this year, but I don't get anything for the boys throughout the year, so Christmas and birthdays are my time to go overboard. Now I just have to find a place for everything.

Here's a picture of Matthew with some of the presents strewn about. He is also wearing the pajama bottoms that Grandma Sue (Nicole's mom) made for him. He looks absolutely adorable in them.

And this is what they looked like when all was said and done. Cute, huh!!!

The Mennears left to spend time at Grandma Ruth's house (Susan's mom, Nicole's grandmother, Benjamin's nursery leader). And then we just vegged out. I was still in my pj's all day. I have been doing that a lot with Chad home. It just kind of happens. I finally got a shower at 10 pm, but I only took one then because I was going to hit the stores the next day with Nicole, and I didn't want to get up any earlier than I had to. We were going to watch a movie, but then decided to just stay home. It was much cozier, and with all the snow that fell that day, it was much smarter to just stay off of the roads. (Of course, now the snow is almost gone, but I guess that is Idaho for you!)

So there we have it. Just a really good day with family and friends and the spirit of giving.