Christmas On Our Own

Oh, the joys that come with being the ones in charge at Christmas time. This was our first Christmas since Ethan was born not being with our families in California. It was weird, a little lonely, but still fun. We kept a lot of the traditions we were use to: opening 1 gift on Christmas Eve (that is somehow always pajamas, even though the kids haven't figured that out yet), reading Luke Chapter 2 and trying to act it out with our Playmobil nativity set, which turned into attack of babyzilla trying to eat the manger and running off with the wise-men's camel,

running out to open Santa gifts and our stockings

then having a cinnamon tree sweet roll for breakfast (with scrambled eggs, so Eric wouldn't feel too badly about it), taking turns opening gifts so we could all see what everyone got (and so it lasted longer), eating ham and marshmallow fruit salad, and generally spending all day in our pajamas.
Now a couple highlights:
Ethan is so hard to read. I can't tell if he likes the transformers Santa brought, or if he is scared out of his mind! All I know is that he played ALL day with them, and figured out most of them without the instructions! He has such a great little mind.A Playmobil Princess castle for our resident princess. Livi thought it was pretty great too, and kept trying to rip off the flower pots to carry around.Livi got a stuffed kitty with a pocket to put treasures in, but really really really wanted to "help" undecorate Ella's magic castle.
. Really, the only time Livs was quiet was when she was eating cinnamon roll. Probably not the best parenting, but she ate A LOT of cinnamon roll on Christmas.Grandma Joan made the cutest blankets wrapped with a pig shapped pillow (pigs-in-a-blanket). Ethan thought the blanket holding elastic made the perfect straps to keep the pillow exactly where he wanted it. The kids LOVE their little portable beds and have set up camp under the table, in the living room, on their chair, and in the hallway.
Ahh, and last but not least, Eric spent most of the afternoon on Cabelas.com trying to figure out how to spend his Christmas money. Thanks to the generosity of so many, in about 2 weeks the animals in western Nebraska will sleep with one eye open. Eric is equipped to kill animals in every way imaginable now. It was fun to talk to all the friends and family that called (even my brother on his honeymoon called to wish us a Merry Christmas!). We miss you all, and even though this was fun, we hope that we are with you next year!