Merry Christmas 2010

This is the first year that we have not traveled for Christmas.  Usually, we go to my parents' house in NJ to spend the holidays, but this year, with a newborn in tow, air travel was out of the question.  Instead, we had a quite and lovely Christmas at our house...a first for us.  It was nice not having to travel during the holiday season.  Hmm, maybe we will have to start a new tradition of Christmas at our house! 

Last night, Stella and Des were tracking Santa on the computer as he made his way around the world using the NORAD Santa Tracker program.  Certain stops took longer than others which would then lead Stella to say, "Santa has been in Machu Pichu for so long!  What's taking him so a long?!?!"  Hilarious!! They left some cookies for Santa and baby carrots for the reindeers by the fireplace before they went off to bed.

Both David and I stayed up late wrapping gifts and assembling gifts that needed assembly.  This on top of the existing sleep deprivation of taking care of a newborn.  Tired does not even begin to describe how we feel, but it was worth every smile and squeal we got when the kids opened their presents Christmas morning.

A view of the Christmas tree from last night after most of the presents were placed under it.

Stella and Des opening their stockings Christmas morning.

We were originally only going to let the kids open their stockings first, then have breakfast, and then open the wrapped gifts.  Instead, breakfast got delayed as the kids proceeded to open every single one of their gifts.

The gift Stella wanted most this year was an Easy Bake Oven...

The kids got lots of Legos, new Zhu Zhu pets and additional parts to their Zhu Zhu pet city, DVDs, pillow pets, and lots and lots of Think Fun games like Flip Over, S'match, Rush Hour Jr, and Shape by Shape.  We love Think Fun games and we highly recommend them because they are so very fun and educational.

Their Auntie Avril and Uncle Pete sent the kids these very cute animal sleeping bags.  Stella got the cat and Des got the monkey.  The cat face and the monkey face serve as pillows for the sleeping bag.  The kids loved it.

Here they are trying out their new sleeping bags.

Desmond's big gift was this Radio Flyer rocking horse.  His buddy Hudson has this rocking horse and ever since we went to his house for his birthday party, Des has wanted the same rocking horse.  So Santa obliged!

I just thought that this was a sweet picture of Stella and Des hugging.

 

Sasha slept through most of the mayhem like so.  But just wait till next Christmas when she will be right there in the mix with her older sister and brother!