Wonderful Christmas Memories

Another year and another Christmas is all over already! All that preparation and anticipation, and then it comes and goes so fast! We started off at the Bueckers' house on Saturday. The kids opened presents in the afternoon, we ate, and then the adults did their exchange gift game in the evening. It was the first year we did that instead of exchanging names and it was a blast! The rest of the evening was spent playing cards and games. We had many laughs playing Mad Gab - I highly recommend this game.

Christmas Eve, Mike and I had our Christmas with the kids. We went to Christmas Eve mass, came back to open presents and then my parents came over to join us for dinner. The kids had a great time opening presents and playing with them for a bit before going to bed. They were so excited for Santa to come that bedtime went very well!

Christmas morning was so much fun with the kids. We were all up opening and playing with the Santa presents by about 7:00 a.m.! Olivia even got into taking things out of her stalking and playing with the wrapping paper. I think we could have just given her paper and a box and she would have been satisfied. Ethan was very excited about his Play Station 2 and games and Avery loved her Littlest Pet Shop sets. They have been playing with their new toys non-stop! We also spent most of the day Christmas Day at Van Becks' house with Mike's whole family.

I have off work now until Jan. 2nd so we are spending lots of time at home. Yesterday we played outside in the snow and even took Olivia for a sled ride. Ethan pulled Olivia in the sled all the way to get the mail in town and back, while I pulled Avery. He is such a good big brother.

Olivia turned 7 months old on Christmas Day and she is SO much fun right now. She LOVES to jump in her jumper and exersaucer. She sits very well by herself and grabs at toys and reaches for them. She can scoot herself around in a circle. She has one tooth on the bottom and another just about to poke through. And, the best one, she says Mom and Mama!! I don't think she knows exactly what she is saying but I can pretend that she does!

We hope you all enjoyed your holidays as much as we did. Even though it went so fast and it is all over, it is nice to get back to normal too.

Here are some pictures from the weekend and yesterdays sled adventure.

The Bueckers Family

All the Van Beck Cousins