Christmas Recap

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas this year.  We enjoyed celebrating Ella's first Christmas, spending time with family, eating fabulous food, and opening gifts.  We spent our traditional Christmas Eve at my parents' house in Issy with both Chris' and Eric's families this year.  We ate my mom's delicious turkey dinner and then had our little Christmas program complete with the lighting of the Christmas tree with my dad's candles.  This is always such a special evening as it is reminds me of my own childhood.  We then had a relaxing and quiet Christmas morning.  Lia didn't come into our room until 7:30 (hooray) and I even made her wait until 8 a.m. before she woke up Logan since we had two late nights out of the last three and the boy needed his sleep!  We then came down stairs to see what Santa left them before eating a fancy breakfast in the dining room.  I then put Ella down for her morning nap before we gathered around the Christmas tree to open up all of our gifts.  Both Lia and Logan were very pleased with their loot this year--lots of Frozen paraphernalia and American Girl doll accessories for Lia and lots of trains, dump trucks, and power tools for Logan!  We spent a slow afternoon with naps and movies before Ron and I made a delicious Filipino dinner which is a new tradition of ours.  My parents joined us around 5 p.m. for the rest of the evening.  It was so fun to share our Christmas dinner and Christmas evening with them.  They brought some wonderful gifts for all of us and really made the evening special for us.  Both Ron and I were pleasantly surprised at how smooth the day went--everyone was healthy and happy.  No major meltdowns, tantrums, or drama!  Hallelujah!

A rare photo of the entire Hartland fam.  It's hard to get a picture of all five of us together these days.

My favorite Christmas photo this season standing in front of my parents' tree on Christmas Eve.

Lia and I singing a few of the Christmas carols that she learned this year for caroling with her Girl Scout Daisy troop at a Senior Center in Sumner.

Logan's contribution to the program was showing the family how he can jump on one leg and do a somersault which are his two tricks that he is very proud of these days.  That boy.

Logan jumping on one leg.

Aunt Natalee brought her bells again this year and the kids enjoyed playing a few Christmas carols with them.  Here is Logan and his red bell.

And, of course, Lia chose the turquoise bell.

Next up in the program was our traditional reenactment of the nativity story.  Lia got to be Mary again this year.  Here she is with Garrett (Joseph) and Riley (the shepherd).

The entire gang after finishing the story.

We finished off the program with the singing of some more Christmas songs...

and the lighting of the Christmas tree.  We always sing "Silent Night" afterwards.  I always love the Christmas spirit that I feel during this time of the evening.

Christmas morning began with the children running downstairs to see their "Santa Stuff."  One of the big surprises for Lia was finding her two American Girl Dolls dressed like Elsa and Anna from Frozen.  Santa's elves even styled their hair to match the outfits.  Lia is convinced that Santa recruited the help of a girl elf for this assignment. :-)

Here is Lia standing next to her Santa couch complete with all things Frozen from American Girl Doll clothes to books to Barbies to pajamas to a water bottle.

Ella enjoyed attacking the presents under the tree while her siblings checked out their Santa gifts.

Logan sitting next to his Santa gifts complete with a train set, Thomas the Train coloring book, a Cars roller backpack, and a giant box full of battery operated power tools.  The power tools hand's down were the favorite of the day.  He hasn't stopped running his chainsaw since!

Eating our Christmas breakfast of eggs, bacon, and the bread ring in the dining room.

Logan opening up a "Bob the Builder" movie.

Lia opening up a Barbie horse that we bought last month at Disney on Ice (that she had to wait until Christmas to have).

Lia showing off her new Frozen digital watch.

Logan showing off his dump truck from Aunt Renee and Uncle Derek.

Logan and papa checking out the awesome book he got that has little train tracks on every page for a pull-back train to zip along.

We saved the best for last and had the children move into the family room to open up the two giant gifts that appeared before Christmas morning in the living room.  Lia's gift was wrapped in Disney princess Christmas paper and Logan's was wrapped in Disney Cars Christmas paper.  Here are the two children standing next to these mystery gifts before opening them.

And the unwrapping begins!  Both kids tore into the presents like no other gift Christmas morning!

Ripping away!

And more ripping!

When they finally unwrapped and opened the boxes, several balloons came out.

Here is Lia letting out her balloons.

Tied to the bottom of each of the balloon strings were words that spelled out a message.  Here I am helping Lia put the words in order.

And the message read:

"You are going to Disneyland!

Love,

Mom and Dad"

That's right!  We are taking the kiddos to Disneyland this winter!  It took a few seconds for the message to sink in, but when it did, Lia started jumping up and down.  Logan never really got it although we have been talking about Disneyland for quite sometime.  Here we are posing with all of our Disney and star balloons.

And after baby Ella woke up from her morning nap, we all gathered back into the living room to open up her few gifts.

Here is Lia helping Ella try out her stuffed lamb for the first time.

Ella holding her lamb.

Logan supervising Ella and her lambie.  Just precious.

And there you go!  Merry Christmas 2014!