Merry Christmas!

We have had two full days of family and fun! Christmas Eve started off with a trip to the mall for Santa pictures with the cousins and Nana and Papa. Shortly after that we went over to my mom's house for our annual Christmas Eve brunch. Holly came down from Sac and we were all together for a few hours ( minus Tim who had to work and left Sac way too late for us to see him). Our dinner stop is always at Nana Rosie's for a meal of shrimp cocktail, crab, prawns, calamari, clams and sausage for the non-fish eaters (Shawn and his brother Sal). We were home by 9pm, just in time to put out cookies, milk and a note for Santa and sprinkle magic reindeer food on the front lawn. Good thing Mason's teacher gave that to them this year! Just before heading off to bed, the boys slipped the Santa key on the front door so Santa could easily slip into the house without having to bother with the messy chimney.

The boys woke us up around 7am...which was much later than I expected. We opened Santa gifts (Star Wars transformers for Mason and a remote control helicoptor for Jaxon) and our stockings before diving into the stacks of gifts from Mom and Dad. After several boxes of clothes, the boys were about done with our gifts. We had to put those aside and open the toys before we could continue. Guess practical gifts are too boring! After gifts, Shawn made his Sunday Special-eggs, potatoes, sausage and toast. We had such a leisurly morning since we didn't have to be anywhere until noon. That's when we headed to Nani and Nanu's for presents. The boys opened the obligitory t-shirts and socks (they were not happy) and then the final gift was the best. They each got a Nintendo DS and two games! Uncle Sal got them each remote control helicoptors so the afternoon was off to a busy start. Our final stop for Christmas was at Nana and Papa's house. We had appetizers and drinks and then a good ole fashioned turkey dinner. I can never get too much of that! We opened presents AGAIN and loaded up our treasures and headed home about 8pm.

So, our house looks like a toy store collided with the wrapping paper department of Target. I guess I know what I'll be doing for the next two days! But this was a blessed and happy holiday indeed.