Chritmas 2011

Our wait to see Santa was incredibly long this year. All 3 kids did an awesome job standing in line and being patient, which totally surprised me! Griff stayed in the stroller the entire time without much complaining or attempts to break-out. As we got closer to the front of the line, I was feeling pretty good about how the meet and greet with Santa would go and even fooled myself into thinking that I might just get a decent picture this year. Ha! Joke was on me. Griff took one look at him and came UN-glued. Lilly was ticked at Griff for screaming so loud that she could hardly chat with Santa and Mac, well his face says it all.
Oh well, we tried and will try again next year!

Lilly quickly got over her frustration with Griff as soon as she found out she was going to get to ride on the train. She has loved trains since the time she began crawling. I always thought she would sort of out-grow it, but she hasn't yet. (:

We made our traditional gingerbread house too. The kids love all the frosting, candy and mess that they have free reign with for this project...

I do believe that Griff ate the most candy this year!

This was very late Christmas Eve night after Santa came and tucked everything under the tree. We waited for him to leave and then came out to just "rearrange" a few things.

Mac and Lilly were up at 4:00 am ready to rip into presents. Pat and I were SO tired and I wasn't about to wake Griff up, so we started without him. I tried holding them off until Griff woke up, but knew better. It's all about picking your battles...right? That's what I am told anyway-

Lilly was THRILLED with her new mountain bike that was from Grandpa Tex. He had bought it for her before he left and we had told him we would give it to her Christmas morning. She says that she will never, never, ever get rid of it because it's from Grandpa. Bless her heart.

Mac was THRILLED with his Gilly Suit that he got from Grandpa Tex. I know he too, will hold on to it for ever.

Griff woke up way after all the excitement happened. We had his pile of gifts for him to open and he really just wasn't all that interested. He really just wanted to play with all of Mac and Lilly's things that were all over the house. Lilly was more than happy to be his official "gift opener".