Christmas 2015

We wrapped up another fabulous Christmas season last night.  It's hard to believe that it is all over.  Unlike lots of moms, I am always sad to see Christmas end.  Besides the extra work, I love everything about the Christmas season--the music, the decorations, the parties, the food, wrapping gifts, watching my children's excitement grow on a daily bais, receiving Christmas cards, and the overall special and magical feeling that can be felt throughout the month of December.  Sigh.  I guess it's a good thing that Christmas always comes around twelve months later.
In keeping with tradition, we did what we always do every year--Christmas Eve at my parents' house and Christmas day at our house.  Lia and Logan were both so excited for Christmas this year.  It was so cute to watch the two of them get into the holiday spirit.  Ella was finally old enough to enjoy certain aspects of the holidays like the lights on all of the houses and the Christmas tree in the living room.  We enjoyed a fabulous dinner and Christmas program at my parents' house with Eric's family this year.  It simply wouldn't be Christmas for me if it weren't for Christmas Eve at my parents' house.  We then spent a wonderful and relaxing Christmas morning opening gifts with the children and eating a delicious breakfast in the dining room.  After lunch, the younger two went down for naps while Lia watched one of her new movies and Ron tried to rest/nap (he has been suffering from a horrid cold/flu this week).  In the meantime, I cleaned up the kitchen, did dishes, set the table, and cooked a Filipino feast for dinner.  At four o'clock, my parents arrived for the evening.  We enjoyed opening their gifts and sharing dinner with them.  I was sad to bid them farewell as it meant the ending of the day, but was grateful for the wonderful holiday we spent as a family (minus a very sick Ron).

The one family photo we took this Christmas season at my parents' home after arriving on Christmas Eve.

Lia enjoyed spending time with her older cousin, Vivi, all evening long.  Here are the girls playing the piano before dinner.

Cheese!

After our traditional turkey dinner, the kids acted out the nativity story.  Since Chris' family was at his in-laws this year, Lia and Vivi had to act out multiple parts of the story.  Here are Lia and Bryce as Mary and Joseph.

Cute Lia giggling over the baby doll hidden inside her dress.

The angel, Vivi, bringing good tidings to Lia, the shepherd.  

Lia, the wise man, Vivi the star, and Bryce as Joseph, posing at the end of the nativity story.

A sweet picture of Grandpa quietly reading to Logan while...

Grandma read a Christmas story to the rest of us.

We concluded the program with my favorite part--the lighting of the candles on the Christmas tree while singing "Silent Night."

Lia getting ready to snuff out a candle.

Snuffing away.

After driving back home and getting the kids to bed, a sick Ron put together Ella's doll crib while I layed out all of the children's Santa gifts on the couches.  Here is Lia's couch all ready to go.  Her big Santa gift this year was the retired American Girl Doll, McKenna, and several items from her collection (a book, the movie, three of her outfits, and her stuffed dog....all of which had to be found and bought on Craig's List or ebay).  Of all the gifts our children received this year, I was most excited to see Lia's reaction to this one!

A close-up of Mckenna and her dog, Cooper.  

A picture of the goodies Santa brought Logan and Ella on the couch that they shared. 

Luckily, Lia slept til almost 7:30 Christmas morning (hooray).  She then had no problem waking up both Logan and Ella in order to get things going.  After Ron gave the children permission to come downstairs, here are some pictures I took of their initial reactions to their gifts.  Of course, Lia immediately picked up her American Girl doll and started screaming!

Baby Ella picking up her new Dream Light (she loves playing with Lia's and Logan's).

I just love that I managed to capture this moment on camera--Lia hugging Mckenna for the first time!

Ella immediately stole Logan's Build-a-Bear dog and put it in her crib with her new Bitty Baby doll.  In fact, she favored this stuffed dog all day over her new doll.  It's a good thing that Logan wasn't that interested in it as sparks would have flown otherwise!

Logan doing one of his silly poses for me by his "loot."

Lia had to run upstairs to get her two other American Girl dolls in order to introduce them to McKenna.  So cute.

After the kids thoroughly inspected their Santa presents, we enjoyed our traditional breakfast of bacon, eggs, and my mother's delicious bread ring.

We then went back into the living room for the opening of family gifts after breakfast.  By this point, Ron was feeling so sick that he just layed on the couch and barely moved while the kids and I opened gifts.  This is the second Christmas that this has happened to him in the past few years.  No fun.  Here are Lia and Logan all ready to open presents!

Mama and the three kiddos.

Lia opening up an American Girl school desk from Aunt Austin and Uncle Robbie.  Yes, it definitely was an American Girl Doll Christmas for Lia and I loved every bit of it!

Helping Logan open his long-awaited Star Wars gun (he was with me a few months ago when I bought this in the store and he has been talking about it ever since).

Lia and I helping Ella with one of her gifts.

Another family picture!

Lia opening up her American Girl Doll salon chair.

Ella opening up Lola's gift of clothing while Logan looks on and a sick Ron lays in the background.

Ella inspecting her Disney's Frozen t-shirt.  So funny!

Ella giving me a cute look!

Although I didn't take any pictures of gift opening with my parents or eating dinner with them, I did remember to snap a few as they were getting ready to leave.  Ella had covered her shirt with rice at dinner and refused to put a clean one on afterwards.  As a result, she walked around topless the rest of the evening.  In addition, she had discovered by the end of the day that she had more fun sitting in her doll crib than playing with it.  So, this was the funny picture I got of the group when I first asked them to smile.  Please notice Ella's hilarious smile while Logan and my dad aren't even looking at the camera.

Although Ella's smile is not as brilliant, this is a slightly better picture of the group than the previous one.

A close-up of the grandparents with my two oldest.  As you can tell by the look on his face, Logan was really struggling with the bright flash on my camera.  Oh dear.

And that's a wrap for Christmas 2015!