The Real Deal - Christmas Day 2009

Christmas is so much fun with little ones around - to see the joy on their faces as they open that special present, to hear their laughter and their giggles, and those oh so ever precious hugs that they give out - kids just make Christmas extra special!

Jessi and I were up early putting the cinnamon rolls in the oven to bake, cutting up the fruit for the whipped cream/yogurt dip and getting the egg scramble ready to pop in when the rolls came out! And before we knew it, the Smiths' and the Savages' had arrived!

Jessi and Gary have the biggest living room so we chose their house for Christmas morning! The kids were all giddy with excitement, knowing that Santa had filled their socks so we all grabbed a quick cup of coffee or juice and headed to the living room! Now usually Santa fills our socks too but this year we told Santa to just fill the kids' socks and we would take care of our own - and that's exactly what he did! It was much easier to just help and watch the kids open their socks instead of trying to open ours, take pictures, etc. etc. I DO love new ideas and this one was a good choice!
After the sock opening, we all grabbed some breakfast before the opening began - and again this year, another change - the adults all drew names so the packages beneath the tree were considerably less, but that was again a good choice! It was much more fun to watch the little ones open their gifts and have just a couple each for the adults!

Aleah took a nap during part of the opening and when Jill went upstairs to get her, she had worked her arm all the way out of her pj's!

Yes, all 4 little ones had matching pj's to wear and the oldest, Miss Rayna, had her own coordinating pair to match - trying to get a picture of all of them (smiling) was of course impossible but hey, we tried!

It was a crazy, loud morning but oh, so much fun watching those little ones open their gifts! No meltdowns Christmas morning - it was all about smiles! To be continued......