Merry Christmas!

Now you may be thinking that I skipped a little something in between Halloween and Christmas. But we all know that Jesus wasn't really born on December 25th so my family decided to go a little crazy and celebrate Christmas last weekend.

My brothers and sister-in-law flew in, along with my aunt and uncle. We had a full house. Lucy was a great helper as I decorated, went grocery shopping and prepared for the big weekend. Saturday was my mom's birthday. Everyone flew in and we had a nice supper and a birthday cheesecake. Then we did "Christmas" on Sunday complete with Stollen, presents and a big afternoon feast. Lucy really enjoyed the unwrapping process this year and become the official present opening assistant. She didn't mind if once open, all the box held was a sweater or scarf, she just wanted to rip the paper up.

 Here I am opening up my first present.

 Then helping daddy.

 And Uncle Rick must need my assistance as well. 

 Hey Uncle Ben, you were supposed to let me help you!

 Oh well, another present for me!

 Bubbie got a fun pillow...

 Which of course I had to try out.

Eventually I realized that there was fun stuff inside the boxes as well. Like my new dolly.

 Although she did end up being quite smitten with her doll, barn, books and even clothes. She kept trying to put all the clothes on over the outfit she was already wearing.

Monday was Rick's birthday so even though we had all eaten more sweets that I might have thought was humanly possible, we managed to sing Happy Birthday and indulge in candle light brownie bites. The sacrifices I make for my family :-)

Honestly thought, it was a great Christmas. Nobody had a lot of time to shop so everyone's gifts were simply and the emphasis was on family and traditions. We got our usual Christmas pajamas but this year, the girls matched. Shockingly :-) I only managed to capture Lucy in hers, but she was pretty thrilled when she realized that hers were the same as ours.

Oh, no, I've been caught playing with the decorations even

 though I know I wasn't supposed to touch them.

I'll just distract them with my mad head stand skills. (Actually, Lucy took this one after she gave Windsor the camera, pointed to herself then did a headstand. Afterwards she went back to Windsor to take a look at the image. What a ham!)

Hallmark even happened to be running a Christmas movie marathon so we even got to have our fill of sappy movies. We still need to break out While You Were Sleeping though. I've been waiting until the boys were gone since it isn't their favorite but tomorrow, Lucy is going to join the "N" family women in one of their favorite holiday traditions.