The Christmas Story and "one" gift

After we got home from the Christmas Eve Service, we all got in our Christmas jammies that my mom had sent us. She always gets us pajamas at Christmas...not always Christmas themed...but this year I wanted them to be. They were adorable! The boys had little gingerbread men and houses all over them and were the perfect color red! The boys love them!

Once we were all ready, Anthony read the Christmas story. As the boys listened, we had them use the Nativity Vonda and Ian gave them last year. They would fill the stable as each person arrived in the story. It was a GREAT way for them to be part of the story and they listened and enjoyed it much better this year doing it this way.

We always let the boys open one of their gifts from Mom and Dad on Christmas Eve. It gets us all excited about what is to come. :) The boys picked the two gifts wrapped exactly the same so I was excited. They had both been asking for swords so they could pretend to be Knights. I found these cute Knight sets at Target and they LOVED them. They were so excited they were exactly the same...and so was I! That way we could argue about who's was who's. If they look the same it just simplifies EVERYTHING! :)

Addison just taking it all in...wearing her "My First Christmas Jammies"

Harrison had made me a magnet with a picture of himself at school. He had wrapped it and placed it under the tree. He was so excited for me to open it and of course, I LOVED IT!!! :)

(can you tell I'm surprised???)

Mommy and Daddy always open our gifts early. I'm terrible at waiting! Ha! Anthony opened his up so he could use it for our Polar Express movie night. But really, we want the kids to enjoy themselves and for all of our focus to be on them...capturing every moment and expression on Christmas morning. So, we have always opened our stuff up on Christmas Eve when the kids open their one gift. Anthony always gets me something fabulous but we really don't put a lot of emphasis on gifts. He always gets me something WAY better than I get for him, but that's just the way he likes it to be. :) This year, he out did himself! He got me a Garmin GPS running watch. There is probably another name for it but that's a good enough description I think. :) It is AWESOME!!! It tracks all my runs, helps me keep a steady pace, alerts me when I reach each mile, and does all kinds of fancy things, etc... I LOVE IT! He's been so supportive with my running. He's so excited that I've started enjoying working out that I think he wants to make sure I keep it up! Ha! :) It was the best gift ever and I had no idea how much I would love it! He is the BEST! :)

After the gifts, the boys got the cookies and milk ready for Santa and headed up to bed. We forgot to sprinkle the reindeer food and by the time I remembered they were asleep. So, I went out and sprinkled the reindeer food so if Harrison asked in the morning I could tell him I had taken care of it! :) Off to bed we went...so Santa could come! :)