A Very Merry Christmas!

We hope you all had some happy holidays!  As you can tell, I have been a little busy over the holiday and have neglected my blog yet again.  I actually didn't even upload my pictures off my camera since the last time I posted and finally yesterday my memory card was full after 509 pictures.  It took quite a while to upload them all to the computer!  I'm not going to even try to catch you all up on all the pictures I took over the month, but if you're on facebook you'll see a few more than on here that I took over the month of December (once I get them put on facebook, that is).

So, we started off celebrating Christmas at Jonathan's parent's house on Christmas Eve.  Being the only grandchildren on both sides, it's like three christmases for my kids between each set of grandparents and Santa.  Justin didn't have much of an interest opening gifts like Katelynn did at this age.  We opened all our gifts with Daniel (Jonathan's brother) with us via Skype.  It was fun to get to have him with us as much as he could be while we all opened presents and chatted.

We got home from their house and got the kids ready for bed in their matching PJ's.  Katelynn was really excited about leaving milk and cookies for Santa and seeing what he brought her the next morning!

When we woke up the next morning, Katelynn was more interested in playing with her new toys from the night before than going downstairs to see what Santa had brought.  When she finally went down, she was excited to see her Barbie car that she had asked for and wanted to play with it more than open any gifts.  It took quite a long time to get gifts opened up.

Every year since Katelynn has been born, we have set up the video camera and let it roll while we opened gifts.  I'm not sure how exciting this year's video will be, but we did tape it!  After the tape had stopped rolling, Katelynn decided to try to take some pictures with the camera herself.  :)

Part of a new tradition we started this year was to take Katelynn to the dollar store and let her pick out a gift for each person (grandparents, uncles, mommy, daddy, and Justin) that was from her.  We didn't sway her in any direction; just let her roam the store and pick what she thought was best for each person.  Then we came home and she wrapped each gift all by herself.  It was a big hit and made for some fun laughs that we'll probably smile about for years.  This was the gift she picked out for Daddy.  She was very set on these flowers for him.  She says they are for his garden (which we don't have one...)

Want to know what everyone else got?  Each of her uncles got a "Cars" movie plastic plate, I got a ceramic bride and groom cake topper that Katelynn says is me in my wedding dress with her daddy, Justin got a little toy horse, Grandpa Carney got a flashlight for when he sees bugs, Grandpa Miller got a new watch, Grandma Miller got a loafa, and Grandma Carney got some glitter body wash.  I think for a three-year old Katelynn did a pretty good job.  She even bought the dogs something (each grandparent has a dog.. not us).

Our traditional family PJ picture on Christmas morning (well, except Daddy who is never good about wearing Xmas jammies).

Apparently we wore Justin out opening gifts all morning.  This was what he did when we got in the kitchen after opening all the presents.  He was actually ready for his nap for once!

The original plan was that my parents would drive here Christmas morning and arrive right around noon so we could celebrate and open up gifts with them before Jonathan's parents arrived for a Christmas dinner with everyone.  They started out that way, but my dad's truck broke down about 1.5 hours away from here.  Jonathan went to pick them up and bring them here so we waited until the next morning to do gifts with them.  (And Dad had to rent a Uhaul truck and trailer to go get his truck and bring it home to fix it.)

Both our families on Christmas

Opening gifts from Grandpa and Grandma Carney

Justin discovering his BIG Thomas train gift (this was (and still is) a big hit for both kids)

All Aboard the Thomas Train!!!!!!!!  My parents got them a two seater so they can both ride!  Justin points to the basement constantly to go down and ride it and Katelynn is right behind him each time!

So that was our Christmas in a nutshell- minus a few hundred pictures.  Somehow the time with family always goes too quickly.  I can't believe it's over already and I'm now having to start thinking about what we will do for Justin's 1st birthday in less than a month!