All day celebrating!

This year our family stayed in California for Christmas... partially because we had a newborn who was very little and partially because we wanted to wake up on Christmas morning in our own house and start some of our own little family traditions. We were glad that Shari could join us this year!

Andrew surprisingly slept in on Christmas morning (till almost 8am)... and then woke us all up (except me who was already awake with Caitlin) yelling, "It's Christmas time!"

We headed downstairs to check and see if Santa had come... and sure enough, he had!

Little man was very excited about the candy in his stocking and even more excited about the remote control train that Santa brought him. We hung out in the family room playing with the train and opening stockings for almost an hour. Santa definitely made Andrew's day!

Andrew made sure that Caitlin wasn't left out. He read all the names on the stockings and passed them out to everyone.

Then he showed Caitlin how her toys worked.

After awhile we moved into the living room to start opening presents. Andrew liked to "read" all the tags. If it had an "A" on it he would say, "A is for Andrew," "it's a present for me!"... even if the "A" was at the end of a name :)... so any present for Shari, me, or Caitlin was fair game.

Caitlin's first present

Little man took breaks to go jump on his new trampoline (which will eventually go outside)

We decked out Caitlin in a cute holiday outfit... which she soaked through in about an hour

We took a break from present unwrapping around 9:30am and had a yummy breakfast of chocolate chocolate chip waffles. Mmm! They were so rich that it was more like eating cake or brownies for breakfast. Delish!

Then we got back to more presents...

If we'd known this voice changer that Andrew gave to Kevin would be such a hit... Andrew wouldn't have needed any other presents :)

After each of Andrew's presents, we paused to play with them so that he wouldn't get too overwhelmed by all the toys. This marble run was a hit!

Kevin and I got Andrew a raincoat and boots since it has been so rainy here... he wore them practically for the rest of the morning and ran around the house putting out fires. He called himself "Fireman Sam" (from one of his new favorite TV shows).

The boxes also provided lots of entertainment

Caitlin just relaxed and napped on and off. I loved opening her presents for her :) Cute bows, adorable outfits, and dolls, dolls, dolls! She and I will be sharing the 10th Anniversary Barbie... which will be on display in her room :) She is getting started young. Kevin and I only bought her pjs, pacifiers, and teething toys... so we were surprised when we found so many presents under the tree from Grandparents, Aunts & Uncles, and cousins for her. What a lucky girl!

Playdoh spaghetti factory- so fun!

One of Kevin's favorite gifts

Andrew got a little laptop and immediately said, "I need to go sit on the couch and do work"... just like mom and dad do.

I thought this picture was darling!

Awesome ball target game- I have a feeling his little buddies are going to have a good time playing this one with him

By the end of the day we still had a lot of presents to open and our house looked like it had been hit by a tornado.

We finally remembered to put the roast in the crock pot around 1pm, so we ate dinner a little late. I got out my Spode Christmas stuff and was excited to use the new Spode Christmas napkins and glasses that I got as presents this year.

After dinner, we did some more present unwrapping before bed. We got this beautiful ornament from my friend Kathren. What a special gift!!

Caitlin tried out some of her bows as we watched Andrew open more presents

We still had several more presents under the tree when he went to bed, so Christmas will be continued...

What a fun day! We are so grateful to Santa, Grandparents, Aunts & Uncles, and Cousins for making our Christmas so special. We definitely were spoiled!