Christmas!

last night the kids set out some milk and cookies for santa 

(fyi: i have bluntly told them in the past that santa is not real when they've asked

and they still choose to believe in him anyway so we go with it)

olive and hazel woke up several times in the night anxious to open presents

the longest i could hold them off was like 6:30am

 they're so tired and so excited 

 i didn't put presents under the tree until last night

so they were scoping them all out first thing

 we had them open their stockings first

 eleanor was allllll about the candy

all day long she kept saying, "open, open"

 then we let them open their presents from santa

 noah's remote control helicopter

 michael has been eyeing a silicone beater blade for making cookies in the kitchen-aid 

but sadly this is for a small kitchen-aid and ours is large so we'll have to return it
i also got him a little computer to program, a swiss army knife, and a watch

 oh olive and your love of tiny toys

 michael got me the prettiest calendar and some make up i wanted (and LOVE already)

and we made hopefully a new tradition of writing funny names on each other's tags

 eleanor didn't have enough arms for her new doll, ball and bottle 

she kept dropping one and needing help
eleanor also got a big plastic bus that all the kids love

 taking his helicopter for a spin
he also got a few ninjago sets, the book ms nelson is missing, a scooter
and pajamas

 we got hazel this cute dress and she loved it

but michael didn't love that it made her look 16
hazel also got a knock-off american girl doll, junie b jones books, a writing journal

 for breakfast we made reindeer pancakes 

 michael also bought me this pretty robe

i looove it

 olive loves her new elsa dress

 she and hazel wore their frozen dresses to see the movie again

noah and ella wore christmas jammies

and we all enjoyed seeing it again

we came home and made christmas dinner

we had roles, asparagus, sparkling cider, egg nog, scalloped potatoes, roast, and jello

 noah was so grossed out in the next two pictures of olive and eleanor 

putting their fingers in the whipped cream

and eating it 

 his face is cracking me up

it was a really nice quiet Christmas at home

michael and i are both super tired

but we pushed through and un-decorated a bit

and even went through the kids toys so we aren't completely overrun by them

MERRY CHRISTMAS!