What a magical Christmas we had! After our usual Christmas eve day traditions of a Christmas craft, baking and movie watching we headed out to leave a candle at Andy’s grave and out to dinner. (We didn’t make it to church this year. Maybe next year we won’t be so rushed.) After a perfect dinner at Biaggi’s we had to make a pit stop at Wal Mart (to add a touch of class to our evening) for some last minute supplies and Miles and I did some shopping for daddy. We had hoped to find a model car for them to do together, but Miles said, “You know what your problem is mommy? You are at the wrong store.” Yea, he said a mouthful there! So he ended up picking an adorable batman t-shirt with matching hat. (Keep an eye out for that in the photos below.)

Once home from our evening out we quickly wrapped daddy’s present, put out Santa’s treats and put the reindeer food (magic reindeer food we got from visiting Santa at the zoo) in some cake pans and put them outside.

Here he is right after he placed the pans outside. He was SO excited at the thought of the reindeer eating the food!

Then of course, it was time to read our Christmas books, snuggle into his new Christmas jammies he got to open and then he went right to sleep. After a very busy evening of John and I juggling the baby, making three separate attempts at cinnamon rolls and a breakfast casserole, we finally finished wrapping everything and getting the baby to bed at 3:20 AM. (I’m STILL recovering from that crazy night!) Here’s the Christmas magic we made. So worth it!

We had to be up by 6:00 AM to put breakfast in the oven, so we only got a few winks of sleep before we had to get up again. I rambled back to bed after putting the food in the oven, but John kept thinking he heard Miles and would bolt out of bed saying, “Miles is awake!” I would throw on my robe, get the video camera all ready and we would hop on the couch in anticipation. Then NOTHING. John was just hearing things. This happened THREE times before he finally just woke the kid up around 7:45 or so. Bless his heart, he was just so excited!

There’s only video from the wee hours of the morning, considering it was still pitch black out. Here’s the rest of our morning, which was wonderful. Miles isn’t like me as a kid. I went through gifts like a wood chipper when I was a wee lass. Miles would open a gift and then want to play with it fully, so we opened gifts all day.

Do you have any of the Charlie and Lolapop up books? They are AWESOME!

The Glow Dome was mentioned about sixteen hundred times this past month. Santa delivered. To my surprise, it’s actually getting used and when in a totally dark room, it’s pretty cool. Will anything beat the Lite Brite of yesteryear though?

I got an espresso machine from my mom. Yay! Despite my brief stint as a barista almost a decade ago, I still haven’t tackled the espresso side and still mastering the basic brewed version. Feel free to leave me coffee making tips. In other related news, I’m much more caffeinated now and a bit more fun to be around.

I figured these little wooden cupcakes you can assemble and “frost” with dry erase frosting tubes would be a one trick pony. He has played with these over and over. I know this little guy would LOVE to have a little kitchen to play in, but who has the space? So hopefully he gets his fill of kitchen play at preschool. He uses our couch as an oven. Yay for imagination!

John got me a Brazilian Blow Out (get yer mind our of the gutter!) which is a special treatment that makes frizzy hair all shiny and smooth for months. Wow to THAT! He gave me my gift in clues, which was so much fun. (I’ve gotten a bunch of emails from concerned friends that I will do a treatment with formaldehyde in it. I’m looking into it ladies and I’ll make sure I only do a natural treatment. If it really is bad for me, I’ll just stock up on spa treatments with the gift card. Not bad either way.)

Miles chose that little ball for Jocelyn. It was an instant hit!

This year we had a lot going on, so even after three attempts, our homemade cinnamon rolls didn’t turn out exactly as planned. So we are going to try again New Years weekend.

Here’s Stamp, perched on my dad’s lap. She was BESIDE HERSELF with that bone. She actually tried to bury it under the Christmas tree for fear that Whisper would get it. She cracked us up all morning with how she frantically paced the house with that bone, seemingly vacillating between the joy of having it and freaked out that someone would take it away.

The marble racerwas a HUGE hit with both John and Miles. Thanks uncle Mark and Chris!

This little dolly was from Miles. He gave it to her and she clutched it to her chest right away and then in her mouth it went.

Baby’s first Christmas! For as tired as I was that day, I certainly wasn’t as tired as I was LAST Christmas, when I was newly pregnant and nauseas on the couch. What a difference a year makes!

It was a wonderful Christmas, indeed. Santa left wayyyyy too many presents for our small little family, but Miles is definitely not finding himself bored this week while home on Christmas break. We went to bed Christmas night, not with a Red Rider bee bee gun nestled under our arms, but a feeling of total contentment that we were able to spend Christmas with our family, that has grown by one sweet little soul, with everyone safe and sound. Sounds like a perfect Christmas to me.

PS Can you believe TODAY is the LAST DAY OF 2010?!?! Dang you time, stop messing with my head! I cannot believe how time is flying by. See you next year!!!