Santa came!

Let me start this post by saying that my writing of this post was interrupted by the purchasing of tickets to go to Florida this summer.  I'm just a touch bit excited about the whole thing.

But back to Christmas day. 

Thankfully everybody, adults, children and babies, slept in until after 8:00.  Once we were up we got right into the action though.

Santa only left some scraps.  He must have been hungry.

Winston wrote a letter to the kids and returned Spencer's letter to Santa with the worlds "fulfilled" and "delivered" stamped on the bottom.

The letter said that Santa delivered to the Tucson area around 2:00 am.

Bella was more excited to spend the morning with Ginger than she was to open presents.  Ginger did not share this enthusiasm.

It was controlled chaos with seven adults and three kids opening presents.

Elliott got a balance board.  He's getting pretty good at it.  It's so good for his core strength.

Santa brought Spencer a MUCH desired Bowser.

And both kids got a new platform swing to share.

Cones for Elliott to use with his scooter board.

Inappropriate face rubbing.

These were Spencer's favorites.

And Elliott's favorites.

After presents we had breakfast, which ended up being more of a brunch.

Nathan thought we needed a lot of salsa.

After we rested a little and got all primped up, we headed to Michael's parent's house for more presents and Christmas dinner.  It was just the four of us to begin with and then my family and Michael's aunt and uncle joined us later.

We tried for our Christmas Day family picture.

Some of them were hilarious.

Official

I like how I wore almost identical shirts two years in a row.  I'll try to do it again for 2016.  I have a third one that should work nicely.

I don't know what Elliott was doing here.

After presents we got to check out the work bench that Michael's dad has BUILT for us.  Yes. He built it.  Let's all just take a moment to appreciate that.

This is the side.  It's where we'll keep the kids when we're not using them.

Peek-a-boo Bella!

Elliott wanted to take some pictures.  I can't remember why Michael was holding Ginger.  

Maybe she was scared.  She looks scared here.

See the little mouse that Bella is holding?  You push a button on the hand and the mouse sings "We wish you a Merry Christmas" in a high-pitched squeaky mouse voice. The year that Spencer was two we had to bring this mouse home with us.  He was so obsessed with it that he threw a huge fit and screamed and cried when we tried to leave without it.  I think he finally lost interest in February and we snuck it back to them. Anyway, Bella was pretty obsessed with the mouse too, but she was able to leave it without a fit.

The day really wore her out and she started to rest on her mom,

but decided that a dog bed was a better choice.

And that is our Christmas!  It was incredibly fun and special to have all of our family (well, except for Michael's brother and his family) together for the day.