Merry Christmas!

It's December 26th - Christmas is over!
Thank God.

We had a great Christmas, I'm just happy to have a year before the next one!

On Christmas Eve Matt took Tessa bowling with my dad and Joey. Asher and I stayed home to get some last minute things done and make sure Asher got his nap. I cleaned up Tessa's room - threw away a bunch of junk - so she'd have room for some new toys. I also finished sewing Asher's pajama pants and robe and downloaded all the music onto Tessa's MP3 player. After Matt and Tessa got home we made a salad and chocolate torte to take to his parents for Christmas Eve dinner and cleaned up the house a bit. At 4:00 we went to the Moody's.
Tessa and Asher had a great time playing with their cousins Sebastian and McKenzie and Matt and I played Cranium with L'Jean, Tyler, Jessica and James.
Matt's parents will never like me, but I've developed a pretty decent relationship with his siblings. I really like L'Jean, and her boyfriend, Tyler and I think Jessica's husband, James, is a really cool guy.
So that was fun.
We exchanged Christmas gifts with his family that night. L'Jean and Ryan gave Tessa a princess Keyboard and Asher a set of duplos, Lisa's family gave Tessa a Barbie purse accessory set and Asher some Thomas movies, Jessica gave Tessa a handheld game and Asher a cute book. Matt's parents gave Tessa a princess lamp for her room and Asher a toy truck and a pretend shaving set.

We stayed until about 9:30, then headed for home. It had been snowing when we left the house at 4:00, and it kept up for a while. When we got home we couldn't get up the driveway and ended up getting stuck about 1/3 of the way up. We put the kids to bed, changed our clothes, and shoveled the driveway for about an hour, digging the truck out.
Then we set up Christmas. For Tessa Santa left a Littlest Pet Shop playground, a Baby Alive, and a new family for her dollhouse. For Asher he left a Little Tykes Took Bench, a Laugh and Learn Lawn Mower and a pull along Puppy.
Their wrapped gifts were overflowing! Tessa got a Fur Real friend cat, and a Fur Real friend Kitten. She got a hardback chapter book called Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg that we are VERY excited to start reading, 2 new books for her leap pad, a pair of jeans and a cute top that says "I'm a Beautiful Princess", 2 singing barbies from the new Barbie movie, and the prince that goes with them, her first computer game, 3 art kits from JoAnn's (one to make a purse, one to make a picture frame, and one to make 3 trinket boxes), a Dora Color Wonder kit, and a set of 'pearl' necklaces that daddy bought all by himself. Our favorite gift for her, though, was her very own Barbie MP3 player. It's so adorable, and it's very high tech. Comparable to an ipod, which is nice because she should be able to use it for a long time.
Asher got a bit less than Tessa this year, but I tried not to get wrapped up in making sure it was totally equal. He was just too young this year to get all that many things and she was at the perfect age for Christmas. I figure he'll have plenty of Christmas's to make up the difference! He got a Tickle Me Elmo, A Leap Fridge Farm, blocks, duplo's, a Swirlin' Gumball Machine, a book of Curious George Stories, a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, new shoes, matchbox cars, and his favorite toy was a Little People Garage. We gave them both some movies - Shrek 3, Ratatouille and Happy Feet.
Both kids were totally spoiled. We'll try to do less next year...but of course, I said that last year, too.

Christmas morning we videotaped the kids getting up and opening presents, which was really fun to watch after. We left for my parents house at about 9:00. It had snowed another 6 inches since our shoveling the night before, but we didn't take the time to work on it before we left. At my parents we ate breakfast and exchanged gifts, then we played the bowling game on Joey's new Wii. It was really fun!
Becki and Colby gave Tessa a Barbie Styling head and Asher a Elmo Giggle and Go Race Track. My parents gave Tessa a Hannah Montana Barbie with a bunch of accessories and a Hannah Montanta T shirt. They gave Asher a Little People Airport, which I'm sure he will love later...but on Christmas all he wanted was to play with race cars! Not a problem for Grandpa - he dug out some old 1/32 models for him to play with and they had a great time with them.

We left there at 1:00 and stopped by Matt's parents, but things were winding down there. Jessica and James were leaving as we showed up, and Tyler and L'Jean took off for coffee right after we got there. Matt's mom and Lisa didn't have much to say to me, and Asher was exhausted and ornery, so we only stayed about 20 minutes before we left.
When we got home we put Asher down for a nap and let Tessa play with her new toys while Matt and I spent another hour shoveling snow.

After that we took the Christmas tree out. It has been dead for at least 2 weeks now...just the way we like it for the annual New Years torching! I wanted it out of the house, though - it was dropping needles everywhere and I was afraid it was a fire hazard!

My parents stopped by to see the kids gifts and we showed them the video, then after they left Matt's parents came over and we did the same with them.
When Matt's parents were here Tessa remembered the gift she'd made for Matt and I at school - she'd been keeping it in her room. She went and got it and I opened it then...it was a snowflake made from popsicle sticks with her picture in the center. Then used white gift bags and made snowmen out of them for the wrapping, too. It was so cute - I've been waiting for my first school gift for years, it seems like. I almost cried when I opened it - I would have had the in-laws not been here! And I squeezed her so tight she squealed. Soon I'll get my first Mothers Day school gift!

Asher had a bath then and went to bed for the night at about 5:30 - his regular bed time. Then the 3 of us had dinner and watched Ratatouille (which I fell asleep during!)
Then we put Tess to bed with her leap pad and new books and Matt and I watched some TV in bed before going to sleep. It was a very nice Christmas. :)

Today Matt is taking the day off. I'm planning to put most, if not all, of the Christmas decorations away and put the kids toys away. Asher's room will need to be cleaned up - he has old toys and clothes that have needed to be packed up for a couple of months now! I'll have to do it today if I want to put anything new away! I need to run out for a bit, too - Asher's out of baby food! Not sure how I let that happen...oops!

I think Tessa's best friend, Bella is coming over to play today. In exchange Tessa will go there on Friday and I'll be able to make my returns in peace. Gotta love the playdate exchange :)

It's a short week/weekend until Monday night, when we'll host our annual New Years party. The kids are spending the night with Grandma and Papa again. Should be a fun party!

So, anyway - there's our Christmas in a nutshell. We had a great year.