Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!!

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!! We'd like to share our Christmas experience with you so far...

Last night, we all went to my mom's house and had a wonderful Christmas Eve together. It's our tradition to spend Christmas Eve there and we wouldn't change it for anything. My mom always comes up with great surprises and a new "theme" every year. Last year, we had a formal Christmas, we went dressed in formal attire, hair done, the works. This year, she told us to "come as we are". When we arrived, she provided one gift to each of us and told us they were our outfits for the evening. Inside the bags, we found pajamas! All the girls had matching jammies and Noel had flannel bottoms and comfy thermal top. Here's a pic of us girls in our jammies:

She supplied everything...right down to the socks...

Needless to say, we were all very comfortable indeed! Me, Kelsey and Alex had Santa socks while Mom had mistletoe socks. Apparently, they don't really make men's Christmas socks, so Noel was out of luck.

While dinner cooked (FABULOUS lasagna), we opened the rest of our gifts. Then we all helped prepare the salad, garlic bread and side dish of green beans with mushrooms and almonds.

After dinner, mom opened her gifts and we all relaxed until it was time to go home and wait for Santa...

This morning, Noel was the first one up. He put the coffee on and waited for the rest of us sleepy-heads to wake. He didn't have to wait for long.

Even though my girls are teenagers,
they still wanted to race down the steps
to open their gifts:

We had a breakfast that only kids can dream of:
donuts, cookies and pound cake, washed down
with ice cold milk.

We then all opened our presents (stockings first)
and enjoyed a great morning!

Here's some pics of the unwrapping:












Look...I got to open a
gift that Noel
wrapped with
tender-loving
care...

And Alex received
one of her favorite
80's movies...
Flashdance.
(She's such a retro
kinda girl...really!)





By the time afternoon rolled around, we dined on a lovely baked ham and some sides (Kelsey insists on ham on Christmas since she
doesn't like the turkey we have on Thanksgiving). The girls played with the new Wii, Noel fought with my new GPS system and I wrapped some last minute things. Kelsey went to spend some time with Alan's family and then we will all head to "the hill" to visit Noel's mom and sister's family.

I can't help but think how lucky we truly are. This Christmas has been very special for us all. We came together as a family to help a less-fortunate family this season . We also have some news...we were approved as foster parents last week! We will be taking foster kids in on a short-term basis and/or an emergency need. We are very happy about it and are looking forward to that experience.

I hope everyone elses holiday was even half as rewarding as ours has been. Merry Christmas everyone!