What’s that? You’re pining for some cute photos?

You’ve come to the right place.

 

This is the face he makes when he’s screaming a loud, high-pitched scream.  It’s awesome. 

…more Christmas!

Okay, a three-year-old clapping for Jesus’ birthday song leads off this post because…she’s so ridiculously cute.  We have a tradition of doing a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas day.  This one was made by Hannah, who is getting to be quite the baker.  It was a big hit. 

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. 

Much, much earlier in the day…

Our Christmas day traditions dictate that the kids can get up at their usual time (so, not out of bed before 6 a.m.) and open their stockings to their hearts’ content.  BUT they may not awaken their parents.  Unfortunately, nobody thought to tell Simeon to let Tess sleep, so he “helpfully” woke her up…

Once Mom FINALLY woke up, we started in on the present opening.  The three oldest are old enough that they’re involved in choosing gifts to give their siblings (Hannah made gifts for each of her siblings), and it was really sweet to see them get all excited about giving the gifts they’d created or chosen. 

Hannah made this bunny for Tess.  Tess loved it! 

Naomi gave Tess one of her dolls (that Tess has coveted for a long time) and she’d made it a couple of different outfits.  Tess also loved this gift. 

Tess got several outfits, all of which got tried on.  Some on top of each other.  Here she and St. Rose of Lima sport their matching aprons. 

Felix, predictably, loved chewing on his gifts.  

It’s not that he didn’t like this shirt…it’s that someone took away the thing he was chewing.  I think this shirt is adorable!

Tess dubbed this her flamingo outfit.  She also got a zebra outfit.  It was a very zoo animal day, I guess. 

Felix’s favorite part of the day was when he was set free to pursue chewing on wrapping and bags as he saw fit.

Soon after the gifts were opened, Legos needed to be built.

Books needed to be read.

More books needed to be read.

Three outfits needed to be worn at once (see the red sweatshirt’s hood under the flamingo fleece?) and accessories needed to be played with.  Tess is very much in a phase of putting things into bags or (in this case) lunch boxes and carrying them around.  She was thrilled to get multiple carrying things for Christmas!

After lunch we all had naps and quiet time, then headed off to the in-town relatives’ house for dinner and playing with new toys.  And clapping for Jesus’ birthday cake (see photo at the start of this post). 

Overdue Christmas Post!

Merry Christmas, everyone!  I had good intentions about posting before now, but this Christmas season (and the few days of Advent leading up to it) turned out to require less time at the computer than I thought they might. 

This is Felix’s First Christmas!  On the 21st, he turned 6 months old.  The next day was 6 months since I was rushed to the ICU, and then New Year’s Eve was 6 months since I was released from the hospital.  It’s good to be here.

“Look, people, I have no control over her.  Can you believe this woman?”

To celebrate 6 months, Felix got his two front top teeth.  Now he has four teeth, and he likes to grind them. 

“She’s making it up!  I’m all sweetness!”

Three days before Christmas, poor Michael developed a fever.  He spent lots of time in bed for those days.  But on Christmas Eve, his fever broke and he was able to help with the decorating of the tree. 

He felt well enough to put our angel/star on the tree.  I LOVE this angel/star, despite the bad rap she gets.  She’s handmade with love and she’s been with us since our first year of decorating our own tree, when Hannah was a baby.  She stays, despite many attempts to replace her with other, fancier, store-bought angels…or stars. 

Now that the kids are getting older, my part in the tree decorating tends to be just keeping the youngest from eating or otherwise destroying the ornaments/tree/packages.  Pretty soon I’m just going to have to show up and all the work for Christmas will be done!  (Okay, they’re pretty helpful, but that is pretty strong wishful thinking right there…)

Tess actually helped quite a bit this year.  And she was so cute, because she wanted us to take photos of her holding each ornament she put on the tree. 

The kids loved the finger puppet nativities sent by a dear great aunt.

We normally host a Christmas Eve early dinner, and were planning on several families joining us this year…but Michael was sick, so it was just us.

Then it was time to get ready for Mass.  I got the girls all matching dresses this year (by request), but the 12 on Hannah looked like she was trying to fit into last year’s dress…so that one had to go back, and that was the biggest size available for that dress.  She got a different, but also very elegant, dress.

Excitement was running high!

We took ZERO family pictures after Mass at the beautifully decorated church because SOMEONE (not to mention any names, but:  Monica) forgot the camera.

Then we came home to the traditional opening of the pajamas, and this year the grown-ups took part:

The girls all got elves’ pjs.  I like to dress mine up with a string of pearls. 

The boys got Santa pjs.  Felix was already in bed and Michael hadn’t changed, so this is what we got that evening. 

But the next day, we did this!  And that’s our family Christmas photo for the year.  HA!