Our Merry Merry 2011

What a Merry Merry Christmas we had!!



The boys arranging the stockings for Santa before bed....



One last photo in their matching PJ's before we headed out to see Christmas lights before Santa made his way to our house.

Christmas morning at home was so wonderful! The boys were so surprised by how Santa brought them EXACTLY what they each asked for.  BooderBean: asked for a new bike with a horn...BrotherBean:  asked for a tractor.



BrotherBean had to open every gift from his tractor





He's getting really good at the Wii and was very excited for his Cars game!!!

Two hilarious photos were captured...BrotherBean got those "big boy" tank tops he has been wanting, ya know, the "wife beaters" or undershirt things....well as soon as he ripped the package open he flung one around his neck and it stayed there throughout the remainder of the gift opening :)

BooderBean got a NEW BIG BED from mommy and daddy for Christmas...and this was his initial reaction when we surprised him with it in his room...he was not so thrilled to give up his old bed at first.  Needless to say, he's been much happier about it after he warmed up to the idea :)

After all the present opening was over we took a break for a yummy brunch together before the large family arrived.

For the first time ever we were able to host Christmas Day at our house with Military Man's family. We all decided well in advance to have a much more relaxed holiday this time and get to actually get in some R&R and enjoy each others company rather than spend all day in the kitchen cooking and then cleaning it up.  Instead we smoked a few delicious meats, had some yummy apple cider, and had a full spread of snack foods and dips and heavy appetizers. We sat around and talked, watched all the little kiddos play with all their new toys, played a grown up game of dirty Santa, and unwrapped hundreds of gifts. 

But one good and bad thing happened....i barely got to take any photos!!! I did not get one photo of my little family all together, I didn't get in even one photo with my kids, BUT what I did get to do was sit back, relax, and enjoy the morning with my little family at home before the large family arrived and then was able to enjoy the whole day and not be frantic about getting photos of every little thing we did.  It was good, and bad.

Best gifts we received you ask??? In my opinion it's these!!!