Ohio: Christmas Day!

Christmas morning was exciting as always. It started extra early for us with Evie thinking that 5:30 was a good time to wake up and start the celebrations!!! Thankfully Grandpa was just as excited and woke up too so he and Evie could play while Nathan and I went back to bed. ;)
This year also had a dramatic twist to it. :) First, Katie got a CAR in her STOCKING!!! Biggest stocking gift I've ever seen! ;)

The rest of us were equally spoiled, just not quite as dramatically. Evie got several cars as well, just much smaller than Aunt Katie's. ;)

The second dramatic event wasn't quite as exciting and was not documented by any pictures... Mom made a gorgeous Christmas breakfast for us which included multiple quiches. One, however, in a pyrex dish got set on an oven burner that got turned on! Right when my mom picked it up to try to save it, it *exploded* everywhere. Shards of glass in her mouth, in her face, on her clothes, in the rest of the food, all over the entire kitchen. The glass was so hot that it melted the rug in front of the sink and the floor wherever it landed. It could have been awful, but, God was so good and my mom only ended up with a few small cuts on her face - none in her eyes, none in her mouth and no burns. Anyway, be very careful with pyrex, it explodes!
After church the opening began. :)
Evie thought it was all very exciting, but despite all the cool things she opened, her Chic-fil-e balloon and the bows from the presents were her fav!
  
Not even Aunt Emily's new ipod touch could rival her bows... or snack time with Aunt Car!  
After all the opening we had worked up an appetite and enjoyed quite the feast!

Chris, Kate, Alana and Drew arrived Christmas night and we had Christmas all over again with them.
I just love these pictures of Lana opening her stocking and her present from Aunt Emily (Tangled, of course!!).

Drew Man was quite into his presents too. :)
Kate and I got each other the exact same Ann Taylor shirt - just different colors! :)
Such a fun and full day to celebrate Christ's birth and goodness to us with our family!

Ohio Christmas Eve

We spent a week in Ohio this year for Christmas. We had such a wonderful time! Evie loved having playmates 24/7 between aunts, cousins and grandparents and Nathan and I loved getting to sleep in every day. ;) It was pretty much non-stop action from the time we got there to the time we left which resulted in a ton of pictures. I've tried to condense them for these posts. :)
Our first full day in Hudson was Christmas Eve. Much of the day was spent with Christmas Eve celebration prep. By the time we got to the service Evie was OUT!

She managed to wake up half way through though and make her presence known to all. :) She was pleased that she got to hang out for a few minutes when we got home before going to bed. She of course had to open her Christmas Eve gift too (new jammies).

Once she was in bed the real celebrations began... pickle hunt, lots of food, lots of carols, Scripture readings, present arranging, etc. :)

D-group Christmas Party

Before heading up to Ohio we also had a party with my d-group girls. Annette and I worked so hard on a lovely dinner and table, but were too excited about the girls to remember to take pictures of it until after the meal! Oh well. We made a gingerbread village together though and each tea had one building of the village to decorate. We had a great time eating, decorating, and Secret Santa-ing. :)
Evie helped Annette set the play list before everyone came.

Working hard...

Laura and Lizzy:

Elizabeth and Emily:

Erica and Jamie:

Givie and Emily:

Finished product!!

Merry Christmas!! (just a month late :))

We *are* still alive, but what I thought would be a slow January has turned out to be quite a crazy January! When we're not hanging out with friends, playing play-dough, reading books, or looking for a new apartment, we've been napping (I've started joining Evie in her daily nap routine :)). We had a wonderful Christmas with all our family and I wanted to share some of our favorite pictures from the different festivities!
The week before Christmas we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Mortiers house for Christmas. Uncle Aaron was back in town so we were all there!

This was Evie's first stocking experience that she could really enjoy and she loved it! :) The little red Christmas outfit she is wearing was Nathan's when he was a baby!!
The presents were also pretty thrilling. She got to rip paper and rip it as much as she wanted!! :)
Grandpa's drill was pretty exciting too...
 
Look what Nathan and I got!!! A new grill!! We've already used it many times and love it! (and yes, it really was warm enough to be outside without a coat. :))
Evie didn't really care about the grill, but loved the box! Especially once she took her favorite giant bear in it with her!

Oh and guess who won the pickle... ;)
It was such a fun day and we all enjoyed the family time, delicious food (we look forward to Mom's special Christmas roast ALL year!), present opening and games. Here is Evie at the end of the day. This little Duplo car is her favorite toy at Grandma and Grandpa's. She's pretty attached to it but I'm not sure how comfy it looks as a pillow!