Christmas!

As I promised earlier this week, here is my Christmas post. Look at this little gal. We attended our Christmas Eve service at church then came home to open our traditional "Christmas Eve gifts". It is not usually that exciting but the kids get new jammies every year. They also open their ornaments and gifts to each other. 

So, Rebecca was a little excited to get her jammies. She totally did not expect to get her blanket sleeper but I found it at Target and I had a pretty good idea it would go over well. She was so excited!

Again, these are pretty boring gifts but the kids do enjoy. They love the gifts that they get for each other. 

These are our sugar cookies we make. This is the first year I did not ice any of the cookies. Our older four kids are finally at a point where none of them need help. Ben tends to eat more of the icing and then it ends up absolutely everywhere, but those are the memories, right?

Our traditional wait at the top of the stairs! The kids woke up around 7:30am and had to wait for Jeremy to feed Mariah her medicine-laced breakfast. They were pretty patient.

Jeremy then reads the Christmas story from the book of Luke. All while they sit and wait to open gifts.

Little "M" was tentative at first but she then realized how this all worked. At the beginning, she tore of tiny bits of paper and handed each piece to me. It took forever!!!

She loved her Minnie Mouse chair! It is still quite the hit in our house.

Christmas proved to be a little much for Mariah. We put her in the safe zone......her high chair. She did fine after we helped her regroup.

Kyle finally got his Star wars Malevolence ship. He loved it!

Micah was happy to get his air soft gun.

Here is our sweet Becca with another pair of jammies. The simple things make her happy.

And Ben got the complete set of Avengers characters.

She loves Minnie Mouse!

We then traveled home to Pennsylvania for a very quick one day stay. Jeremy had to be at work so we made this trip on Friday and came back on Saturday!

We visited with both of our families and it proved to be a bit much for Mariah.

As we sat on the floor at my mom's she had to be contained!

Grandma and Pap got her a kitchen set and food.

I love how her eyes disappear when she smiles big!

The kids begged to go play outside at 8pm. Like any good parents we said, "Sure"! 

The weather forecast called for 1-2 inches overnight. This is what we woke up to on Saturday morning. It was at least 6 more inches. Normal in Pennsylvania!

My brother began to help clear the driveway.

We were finally able to venture to Jeremy's parent's house. It was quite the adventure. The roads were terrible. Our van is not the best in snow. We actually got stuck in Jeremy's parent's driveway. The funny thing.....it is level!
So we walked the few feet to Jeremy's grandma's for a quick visit. She lives right next door!

Jeremy's grandparents have always held a very special place in his heart. 

We had lunch at Jeremy's parents! You can never go wrong with pasta!

Let the gift-giving begin!!

Mariah is really getting the hang of things!

Even Uncle Jeff enjoyed helping her!

That pretty much wraps up our Christmas. It was fun to watch the excitement in our kids' eyes as they watched Mariah enjoy her very first Christmas! Jeremy and I love to watch our kids' excitement when they get what they never expected.

The boys love their Legos/Mega Bloks. Becca loves her Green Machine (basically a fancy Big Wheel). Mariah.........loves everything!

It got to be a bit much for Mariah as she still struggles with all the changes. She acts like a pinball in a room. She just cannot decide what to do with everything. We lovingly call her "Mariah the Destroyer".

I have decided that Rebecca is our "Sugar" and Mariah is the "Spice"  in our family! You can probably tell that from the pictures. We love it this way! 

I fixed our traditional Christmas dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes, baked corn, candied sweet potatoes, stuffing, peas, and rolls. My intention was for this to be done together. But my stove burner gave out on me and blew one of the fuses for my kitchen. Let's just say that the sweet potatoes were not done with the rest of my dinner. 

Jeremy ordered the necessary part and I again have a completely functional stove! Thanks dear!

What a wonderful Christmas we had!!!! We wouldn't change a thing!