Christmas Re-cap

Our Christmas celebration actually started on Thursday (the 23rd) night with a family dinner at Emily and Steve's. They were heading out on Christmas Eve to celebrate with Emily's family, so my whole side of the family was there for dinner. My sister has many more pictures from the evening posted. We had a wonderful time and ate a fabulous dinner that Emily and Steve cooked for everyone!

On Christmas Eve, after church {those were the pictures in the post below}, my mom and dad, sister and brother in law all came over for a yummy dinner that Nick cooked of gumbo and muffaletta calzones. The kiddos also got to open their gifts from Bamma and Big Pat and Aunt B and Uncle Ken.

They were loving it. Carter got some Woody boots of his own and had to show them off.

Callen was at first a little unsure of the baby doll that Bamma and Big Pat gave her {though she's made a full recovery and is now loving her baby dolls!

Both of them were really into Uncle Ken's assembling of them Weebles treehouse.

Callen especially liked trying out Carter's new camera. They both love to say "cheese," and then ask to see the picture. Now, they can get us to say "cheese" and then show us the picture. It is a hoot.

After dinner and visiting, all of our guests went home and we went to sleep so that Santa could stop by if he wanted to.

It appears he wanted to. This was the scene before the kiddos woke up.

Once they were up, they hit it full force. First, diving in shoulder deep to see what was in their stockings.

Then, moving on to see {with a little help from Dad} what Santa left under the tree.

Carter received a bicycle, {and in his words} a Woody with a hat off and you can put it back on, a Buzz that has wings and a light on his arm, and a dinosaur {Rex}. It was a Toy S.tory Christmas for him, with a little Cars thrown in, too {the bicycle is Light.ening McQueen}.

Callen received a PBK chair, a dress up trunk, a baby stroller and several other odds and ends. She loves the chair, hasn't totally figured out the dress up trunk {though she does like the bracelets}, and has yet to stop pushing the stroller around the house--with everything from babies, to bubbles to Buzz in it!

Then, after we opened presents, Bamma, Big Pat and Aunt B came over for breakfast and to check out all that Santa brought.

While we were enjoying our breakfast and our Christmas morning cozied up in our house, this is what was happening outside our window.

And here is what the house looked like after about 5 hours of snow. Not quite Midwest-worthy, but pretty nonetheless.

After the children took {3 hour} naps, we headed up to Decatur to celebrate Christmas with Nick's family at his sister's house. We enjoyed a yummy dinner and delicious desserts and a special treat from Debbie {another post all to itself!}

When my son finally melted down completely made it to bed, he completely crashed...with his newest friends...

...and to all a good night.