Christmas Morning!

Waiting with me for daddy to play "Joy to the World" so we can hustle on down.

Henry starting us off.

Snowboard!

These two are headed to CA to watch the Seahawks in a week.

They were so excited it made me cry.

Henry snuck out to play while the rest of us cleaned up.

Christmas Eve!

Snowy walk at the Christmas Eve service.

I somehow missed taking our annual Christmas Eve family picture!  But we were here, and dressed up, and ate a lovely Mexican dinner, and then snuggled in and watched yet another Hallmark movie.

And then the kids all cozied into Ava's room for the night.

ready.

Christmas Eve Morning

Henry couldn't wait to break out his Seahawks checkers!

back to Grandma's for presents!

These are the faces of 11 children who can't believe they have to take a picture before they get to open presents.

I really love watching these kids open gifts.  They are super patient and they get so excited about what everyone else is getting--it is such a joy to buy for them!

We finally finish the kid gifts and kick them out so we can start the grown-ups!

Everyone once in awhile they wander in to check our progress (and maybe take a nap)

Joseph and Mary.

After the epic gift opening and too much brunch, the kids do a Christmas play.

 The star was pretty much my favorite part of this year's:

the big boys were dying to get out and shoot

and the other boys had spent the morning digging this tunnel, which was pretty impressive.

We finally packed up and hurried home for a quick, late nap before the next Christmas celebration.

Christmas Eve Eve

This one of my very favorite days.

I woke up to find these three snuggling on the couch.  

We cleaned the house super fast, made a list and checked it twice and made sure everything was wrapped and ready, finished the food, and then I snuck out for lunch with Paula, and came home to a napping house, except for this one:

and we dug into the Christmas bread sticks and watched a Hallmark movie.

The really lovely calm before the storm.

And then we headed to my parents to kick off Christmas!

can't run there fast enough.

food and fireworks

Henry opening the first gift of the season

Ava has found it is best to ignore her.

can't wait even two seconds to read

Garfield Christmas with Grandpa

and the kids have officially taken over Bingo.

Christmas has officially begun!

here's a first...

we actually made our Christmas cookies before Christmas.

You could say we're finally getting pretty good at the holidays.

I make one last trip to the store for stocking stuffers...

The first three days home for break...

Monday:

can't wait to play school

Tuesday:

sledding and hot chocolate

Wednesday:

snowmen 

These two are so happy to be home together that they are absolutely inseparable.

Holiday Hoopfest Tournament

Jack's first winter tournament involved ugly Christmas sweaters, pretty Christmas socks, and a whole lot of winning!

we took over the pool.

they're pretty much each other's biggest fans

I'm really loving watching this team play.

We squeezed in a lot of quick trips to shop and coffee and eat in between games.

What a great start to our Christmas break!

the most wonderful time of the year....

Hallmark Christmas movies every night!

So much snow!

Snow boy.

We had so much early December snow and every morning Henry would head outside at 7:00 and play till we left for school and every afternoon, he'd hop out of the car before we even got in the garage and play till dark (or later!).

This sight greeted me every morning when I came downstairs:

 So I finally snuck him out of school for some snow hooky and helped me hang all the lights:

Nutcracker!

I love a road trip with these girls!

waiting for Ava to try on clothes....

dinner with the cousins

intermission champagne and cake pops

with the ballerinas!

Sometimes you get so excited and have too much fun and the next morning looks like:

Ava helping Grandma with instagram

Jemma rallied nicely and we squeezed in some more shopping.