And now for the most favorite day of the year: Christmas day! I shall caption each picture, because it is easier for me that way:
Elisa in front of the tree, Christmas morning. She was so excited!
Her TY unicorn from her stocking. She begged for this and now she never touches it.
Gabe and all of his stocking gifts.
Gabe thought this train bank from the dollar store was pretty exciting. I'm not even sure if we still have it.
This dollar store toothbrush: not so exciting.
Grandma, Ian, and Ian's big belly.
Aww! Sweet Ian-bean getting his very first Christmas present!
Erik opening a stocking stuffer that I'm pretty sure was supposed to be mine
Some stocking stuffers that Ian thought were awesome enough to put in his mouth. Actually, almost anything is awesome enough to Ian to be put into his mouth. Except binkies. Not those. Never those.
Me opening my candle. I seem to get one of these every year in my stocking!
Me with my bag of chocolate covered pecans. Normally I don't like nuts defiling my chocolate, but in this case, the chocolate on the pecans is a match made in heaven. Nevertheless: peanut M&M's, get thee hence. I spew thee out of my mouth.
Gabe and his perplexus ball. It got raving reviews on Amazon. Gabe played with it for a little while, but now it just sits atop his dresser.
Thanks Ian, for making a liar out of me. Here he is with a binkie in his mouth. In the two seconds that his lips were wrapped around it, I snapped a picture and then he spat it back out like he always does. Anyway, here he is with his little train Santa brought him. He likes it, but I don't like that all the cars don't stay together with the engine.
Elisa opening her most-anticipated Santa gift: her surprise puppy. She still likes it and plays with it on occasion.
Some awesome present-distribution performed by Gabe and Elisa, also including some spectacular crawling by Ian.
The kids opening their presents. Just too cute!
Got a new shirt!
Elisa's mermaid dolly that I found for $10 at Toys R Us
More present opening...
My best gift: Daisy perfume by Marc Jacobs. LOVE!
Elisa opening her camera, which is actually a pretty neat toy, since it is a real camera! Elisa uses it a lot, there are also a couple of games she likes to play on it.
My most-anticipated present: a 3-D pen! It is basically a toy that makes toys. I wish I had time to use it more often than I get to.
My most-used gift from Erik. I wear these just about every day and they still stay sparkly!
Presents from Great-grandma Brenda. The kids were enthralled with these water-color books for quite some time. I've since thrown them away, because the kids thought it would be faster and better coloring if they soaked the books in water. Faster yes, better, NO.
I need this book. I wish I had more time to sit and read it.
Almost all of Elisa's gifts! Spoiled girl.
Erik wasn't left out of the nice presents. He got himself a remote- controlled helicopter and drone. He let me fly it for a second and this is what happened. I didn't see Makayla laying down and I couldn't control the helicopter very well, so it landed in her hair and kept spinning and her hair got caught in it. Sorry Makayla! She was a good sport about it!
Christmas mess.
The next day we all went down to Galveston and ate at Sunflower Bakery:
My pretty girl with the big eyes and little nose. She definitely has a doll face.
A cute picture of cute Gabe engaged in a conversation with daddy.
I love this beanie boo-boo. Just too cute.
Having fun with Grandpa.
Elisa and Makayla.
A pretty crap-tastic picture of the family. I look just awful and Elisa just looks weird. Even Ian looks weird. Erik's face is shadowed. The only one who looks cute is Gabe!
Next, we went to the beach. It was very windy and a little bit chilly.
Well, there you have it. Our very last Christmas spent in Texas. Next year (okay, this year since I am posting three months late) it will be spent in hopefully St. George with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Makayla!
