He Came!

I will eventually catch up to our current life.  If it wasn't so important to me to document everything, this would not be a problem.  But I am determined to continue printing our blog into book form for our children to look back on one day.

So we pick up where we left off...

Christmas Eve is always a late night for our family.  Like if we finish before midnight we are doing great!  Last year, Millie Janalee missed the book reading because she needed her sleep and her daddy was pretty adamant about it.  Ha!  This year, she made it!  Smith did too, but he slept through it of course.  We left milk and cookies out for jolly old St. Nick!

And HE CAME!

Santa found us in Mississippi!

Smith's first Christmas

Poor Kristin, Lee, and Hughes had to wait on the rest of the family...including all my late sleepers to take Hughes downstairs for his first Christmas.  I think he was close to his morning nap before we all woke up.  Haha!

Hughes's first Christmas

While Susu fed Smith his morning bottle, we got to experience Millie Janalee's first "real" Santa experience.  This was the first year she was old enough to kinda know what was going on.  Santa even left her a letter next to his cookie crumbs.  And we knew he also stopped by St. Louis because he left us a book about his travels there!  So exciting that he knew we weren't there, and he found us at Susu and PawPaw's house!

Reading Santa's letter

Checking out all her princess things

We learned that Millie Janalee does Santa just like her mama!  It's early in the morning and everyone is looking at you.  We have to think about things and take our time.  No pressuring from the peanut gallery, please.  I love her!

This spyglass and sword are used in her daily marches around our home singing the Jake and the Neverland Pirates theme song!

She loves paint!  Now she has her very own easel!

Now she can skate on actual skates and not on books like she had been doing!

After Smith took his bottle, he was ready to see what Santa brought him.  Millie Janalee helped us see what was in his little stocking.

Smith's first Bully!

The Giving Tree - the book I gave his birthmother in the hospital.

And, finally, the grown-ups got to make our way into the den to see what Santa brought us!  Ummm, YES we still believe!  You know, when you stop believing...Santa stops coming.  And that's the truth. As for me and my house...we believe!

Russ looking through his goodies.

Dustin's redneck plunger

Even Pawpaw had a stocking!

And the babies even had a little extra something from Santa in the grown up room!

Sweet babies on Christmas morning

Dustin likes toys too.

We spent the rest of the day in our pajamas.  We relaxed, napped, played, and watched Millie Janalee play with her toys.

Coloring with Mama

Showing Daddy how to draw circles.

Button art

Thanks to this from Susu and her little laptop, Millie Janalee knows all her letters and sounds!  Smarty pants!

Oh, and Russ played with Pawpaw's new toy too!  This rower is now on Russ's list for next year.  Ha!  Good thing we will no longer be in our little townhouse by then!

It was a Merry Christmas indeed!