It's begining to look a lot like Christmas...

I love Christmas cards!

Christmas 2010

Christmas was a fairly low key event for us this year. With having completed the bulk of the celebrations the night before, it was mostly just Santa for Jenna, Chloe and Cooper as well as the gifts from their parents. Jenna got a little car/riding whatever, no clue what to call it. The best part is all the buttons and the music it plays on the dashboard. It took her a bit to get into it. For a while there it seemed like she was more interested in Chloe's new baby doll stroller and Chloe more interested in Jenna's car. Chris' mom came over along with my mom and Bob to watch the kids unwrap their presents. Chloe found Cooper presents on the couch under a blanket pretty easily but we had to help her out a tiny bit with locating hers in the entertainment center. The highlight may have been her pulling the presents out of the cabinet and spreading her arms as wide as they could go and announcing "Tada!" It was so fantastic. I'm looking forward to next year when Jenna is closer to two and can understand what the hell is happening a little better. If you can battle through all the photos, at the bottom of the post is a video of Chloe and Jenna playing a little up/down game together that was pretty dang cute.

 

Christmas Eve

My mom knitted all the kids' sweaters for Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve so that everyone else could just hang at home and do whatever. It was a lot of chaos this year it felt like. Usually we are pretty methodical about how we unwrap presents. Starting with the oldest and working our way down we all watch as each person unwraps one present and then we start the cycle over again. That way everyone can see what we each got and gratitude seems a bit better. But with the family growing the way it is and the kids being way too excited to wait 45 minutes between turns, we ended up with a free for all. It was a good night with the family.

Princess Jenna graced us with her presence.

My dad and Holly were of course dressed festively

Grandma Chris and Jenna

Kylie Mae and me

Chris and Chloe reading. One her favorite things to do.

My sisters, Sara and Jose {Megan}

My mom and Bob

I made each of the nieces and nephew a quilt for Christmas and it was fun watching their (or their parents in Shiloh and Cooper's case) reactions.

Chloe and her quilt

My mom also knitted each of the grandkids sweaters and bought matching shirts and skirts to go with. They are really cute.

Kylie, Chloe, Cooper, Jenna, and Shiloh

While we were in town I did a trade with Sara's friend Tracey who owns her own company Huchi Gear that blings out t-shirts and what-not. She added names to Casey and Jenna's stockings. My stocking isn't really conducive to that right now, so I am on the hunt for a new stocking. In exchange The Jenna Rose Collection made her a custom birth announcement keepsake frame. You can see it here. I love how they turned out, especially Jenna's. You may recognize the bow embellishment as the one that Kim Henrie made for our Christmas pictures.

Then we put all the kids in their Christmas pajamas. We tried to get one last picture before bed, but this was the best we could do with 4 tired toddlers...

Then the kiddos headed either home or to bed. One of the traditions in my family is that Santa Claus hides our presents on Christmas Eve and leaves our stocking with them so that we know they are ours. Usually all of our presents would be wrapped in the same paper with Santa on them but I spaced it this year. My mom put together this awesome written history of where this tradition started from (her Grandpa started it forever ago after not ever having Christmas when he was a child). She also included a bag of goodies of all the things that would go in the stockings when my Grandpa was young and then it got passed to my mom's generation and now to us. It was an incredibly thoughtful gift. So one last thing before bed...hide Jenna's gifts with her stocking...

Hotel del Coronado

This year before we headed to see the tree at the Hotel del Coronado, we went out to dinner with my Dad and Holly for her birthday. Casey's flight got in just in time for dinner. So for once we were actually on time to an event. In fact we got there a little early so we cruised over to the beach and watched the sunset. It was gorgeous. As always...

 

Seriously, how cute is my silly husband?

Dinner was a fun time. I think it was the first time we have celebrated Holly's birthday in the 10+ years they have been married. It's just so close to Christmas it always seems so hard to schedule a separate event.

Then we walked across the street to see the tree at the Hotel del. It's an annual tradition for us. I liked the tree this year. Jenna as always drew plenty of attention. It was fun having Scoot, Jen, and Shiloh join us. It was the first time they have.

Adore my sisters!

One busy ass day...

We had a very busy day today! It started with the incomparable Kimberly Henrie taking family photos for our Christmas cards. She is absolutely amazing. Thought I would share a few...

For the record, shocking as it may be, this was not my idea. Now you know why I love him!

Then we headed out to see Santa Claus. Every year ERA Real Estate Agent, Steve Campbell dresses up like Santa and all the ERA employee's kids can come visit him. It such a great experience because there aren't very many people there and Steve remembers all the kid's names so it feels so intimate. Jenna had NO love for Santa this year. We tried and tried but she wanted nothing to do with him. So we got some of the ever classic, rite of passage photos of her screaming on Santa's lap. Enjoy...

After Santa we went and picked out a Christmas tree. Jenna was more interested in eating the pine needles than she was anything else. the trees came from Wisconsin, so Casey felt like we had come to the right place to purchase.

We've got the tree in the house. But decorating it is just going to have to wait. I'm exhausted! Nighty night.