Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Merry Merry 2011

Christmas came and went in the blink of an eye this year it seems!!! Wish we could have slowed it down a bit!  What a whirlwind!  I didn't go crazy taking too many pictures....first, because I just wanted to enjoy the time and second, because....I was too busy...chasing Mr. Sammy down....he is on.the.go.....walking, no...running... up a storm and in to EVERYTHING:)  Exhausting, but I am sooooo glad we had another little one to celebrate with this year:)

I was so thrilled that we finally decided to go to Christmas Eve Mass this year.  This allowed us a little more "home" time on Christmas morning.  I was excited to get a few pictures of the kids in their Christmas bests!  But only a few wanted to cooperate..


Mr. J was not into the picture thing... especially after I had to wake him up from a short nap early;(


Makes my heart full to see how FULL of stockings our mantle was this year!  Thank you to Yiayia for sewing yet another stocking.... I LOVE LOVE Sammy's....especially the blue!


We headed to Yiayia's after a long Mass for dinner!  Here is our annual family picture!


The kids were more than ready to open a few presents after dinner!  Though Sammy's favorite thing to play with was definitely the paper....he had a lot of fun with this little toy from Thad:)


My reader...so thrilled with her new fairy books!


And J with his FABULOUS new life-like airplane.  There's even a potty!!!


Before unwrapping their Santa presents in the morning the kids ran to read the letters that Santa and their elf had left, and of course checked to see just how many cookies Santa ate:)


Sam was pretty fun to watch....he just loved his "gate-less" freedom in the living room:)  Love the way he is sitting in this picture.  He was all smiles even though he was up most of the night.  Not sure if it is teething or another pending ear infection:(


What a LUCKY little girl...  with her new Marie Grace American Girl...


J was pretty excited about his new race track....


Hmm... this box looks fun even though it's not mine:)


And Missy was pretty excited about the fairy door and is awaiting a visit from her fairy any day now:)


We had a cinnamon roll breakfast and played in our jammies before getting ready for dinner at Omi and Papa's.

Here's my plate of this year's Christmas cookies...



A few family pictures....so hard to get everyone looking at the camera without being too silly:)



Here's the whole gang!


More presents and a yummy dinner from Omi....(and from the looks of it...Sammy had moved on from his fetish with paper to a love for water bottles;)



Each year seems to go by just a little faster.....We are blessed every year,....but this year we had so many reasons to be thankful....Each and every prayer we offered was answered.  Miracles happened and because of those miracles....we are healthy, we are safe...we are together.  I could not ask for more.