Merry Christmas!

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas at our house today! Santa came by last night and even texted me a picture of himself in our den...the girls thought this was SO impressive! (Ellie's jaw literally dropped when she saw the picture!)







My family was originally planning to come after breakfast today. Sometime yesterday evening I believe Ben and Ruth convinced my parents to come earlier. We were so happy to have them here for a big breakfast. (They almost made it in time to see the kids come out of their rooms...they missed it by about 20 minutes...those kiddos were excited and up a little bit earlier than normal.) Santa was good to the kids...and to Paul and I! The kids had each asked for 1 or 2 things from Santa and he delivered! JP of course hadn't asked for anything but he was beyond thrilled with his slide. He played on it ALL DAY! The plan is for the slide to stay inside at least through the winter since he loves our outdoor slide so much.

Everyone gets an orange in their stocking. JP and Ruthie were SUPER excited about their oranges!

Goldfish! He ate A LOT! (And then discovered that it was fun to dump them out and stomp on them!)

Really the only sweet JP likes is cookies so he was pretty excited to get his own package of cookies.

After the Santa reveal and the Rainey clan's arrival we sat down to a delicious breakfast. My mom made her yummy Monkey Bread (a Christmas tradition that I had missed since we started doing Christmas at our own house when Emmie was born) and some sausage and I made bacon, hashbrowns, and eggs.

After breakfast the kids played for a bit and then we sat down to open Christmas presents. We all got some pretty wonderful gifts! Everyone had put lots of thought into their gifts and those are always the best kind of presents. From us the kids get something they want, something they need, and something to read. This year the girls also got a "forever" gift. We gave the girls a silver charm bracelet. They were really excited and their first charm is the flower bouquet charm they got from Ben and Ruth for being in their wedding.

The three year old gift for our girls is a jewelry box inscribed with their name. It has a ballerina and plays music. Ruthie was SO excited and enthralled!

Ruth and Ben made each of the girls a photo album with pictures from the wedding in it. The girls have LOVED looking at their pictures! (And all the adults loved looking at the pictures just as much!)

Franklin is always the most excited about Christmas and we all love to watch him open his presents! We let him open the first present because he was just so excited! There were a few times he went outside between his turns opening presents and I would just call "Franklin, present!" and he would come running. I love this little puppy!

Ellie got a mermaid tail blanket. She LOVES it! She was hilarious because she kept sticking all her gifts in the blanket.

The charm bracelet reveal!

After presents the kids played for a bit and then we had a delicious steak lunch that my mom brought. I am so grateful that she always brings a yummy meal so that I don't have to cook!

Uncle Ben and Aunt Ruth both love Calvin and Hobbes and each time they come they bring Emmie (and her sisters) a new Calvin and Hobbes book to borrow.

We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the day together before everyone headed back to Greenville.

Franklin was SO worn out after everyone left. He was so tired he didn't even move when the girls were eating dinner and he ALWAYS moves for food!