The gigantically long Christmas post

Christmas was great fun this year. We got our first real, live Christmas tree. It was fun to do but I think we'll stick with our good old fake one next year. The differences weren't really noticeable enough to me to merit the extra trouble. The kids sure had fun picking it out though. And decorating it. We pretty much just gave the kids free reign on the ornaments and they loved rearranging them  almost daily. The girls did a pretty good job keeping them out of Finn's reach.

The Santa visit was everything we expected it to be. Good sport, that Santa.

We let the kids wander around Bass Pro a bit after they saw Santa. Nora really, really, really wanted this jacket she was squeezed into...that is a size 3-6 months. 

T showing off the peppermint bark we made. The girls were actually able to do most of it and they were super proud of themselves. 

We made our traditional "gingerbread" trees. One of these years we'll get ambitious and try for making real gingerbread houses, but for now these keep the kiddos pretty happy. 

Finn just climbed right up and got to work.

He was actually quite methodical about placing his m&m's.

Apparently T's tree was a bit concerning...

Nora took forrrrrrevvvverrr on hers. First she had to get a sample of each type of sprinkle and candy available. Then she had to pick through her collection for just the right sprinkle. T and Finn were done eating theirs and already out of the bath by the time Nora finished. 

And of course they were so excited for Christmas morning. 

Teresa was really hoping for a Kitty Surprise - it's a stuffed kitty that will have either 3, 4, or 5 kittens ready to be 'born' i.e. un-velcroed from inside its tummy. I was pretty excited that she wanted one of these because I totally got one for Christmas when I was a kid. Hers had four kittens.

Poor Santa got quite the headache trying to track down that Elsa styling head. But it was the only thing Nora had consistently asked him for. Good thing Santa has such resourceful elves/aunties to help him out! She was super thrilled about it.

Finn was pretty jelly. He loooves Elsa. I was feeling a little badly that Santa didn't get him some sort of Elsa doll. Nora's has gotten many a Finn kiss since Christmas.

Finn loves dogs so much. He goes around saying "woof woof woof" often, especially any time he sees a dog. He would light up any time Nora let him play with her Violet dog, so he was pretty excited to unwrap his own on Christmas morning. He is so cute, he already had two stuffed animals that he slept with every night and was unwilling to bump either of them, so now he just is buried under all three of them each night.

Ha! This is the face he gave me when I tried to take his picture at breakfast time.  

Probably my favourite shot of the day! These three are just the best, I couldn't love them more. They are so sweet and fun together and such good buds for the most part. We are so lucky and blessed to have them.

I was trying to get a video of the kids playing with Finn's new car track and Finn was so cute when he saw the camera out. It is super unusual for him to ham for the camera at all - usually he shuts down and turns away when he sees it. but he was so cooperative with all the pictures Christmas day, cute boy.