Christmas

Despite Reagans HUGE aversion to Santa Clause, christmas at our house this year was a whole lot of fun!!!! It was so fun to see Reagan get so excited about all her toys...she kept saying "For me?" and "Surprise" everytime she opened a present... it was so cute. Brody was a trooper through all of it, like most babies at christmas the paper and boxes struck his attention more than anything else. Here are several pictures (in complete oposite order) of our christmas.

This is Me, Megan, and Jordan at my moms house in Charlotte (we went christmas day afternoon). My mom bought us matching pajamas and they came with those silly eye cover things so we decided to be dumb and take some pictures.

This is my Grandma (my kids great grandma) playing with Brody. It was so fun to have her around this christmas

My nephew Damian and my sister Megan fedding Brody breakfast.

Brody wearing Damians protective eye wear for his play chain saw he got for christmas.

Reagan got a big trunk full of beautiful dress up clothes and shoes from my mom...she prances around the house like she is something else in all her fancy dresses.

Brody on one of his Christmas presents...he loves when you push him really fast around the kitchen.

Brody among all the chaos

The christmas bomb that went off at our house (this is what it looked like after we were done opening presents and started playing)

Reagan and Brody's big gift from Santa this year was a trampoline...and yes that is water on it, it had rained the night before but i couldnt show Reagan the trampoline and then tell her she couldnt jump on it... yes she got wet but she loved every second of it.

Reagan was a pro at opening presents. She would turn it around until she found the little flap that she could put her hand under and tear. She opened all of hers and all of Brody's presents and then wanted to help with mine.

Brody playing with his stocking (he woke up uncharacteristically early and was back asleep before Reagan even started opening her presents)

Christmas Eve just after Santa left =) or should i say putting together that little pink thing on the right that came in 125 parts and took 2 hrs to put together.

Reagan decorating christmas cookies. Despite not liking Santa she was all about making him cookies.

It is a tradition in my family to make homeade sugar cookies and frost them on christmas eve day...one that i have now passed onto my kids and Reagan LOVES it.

It was a great christmas...spending time with our families and watching our kids enjoy themselves makes all the work that goes into it worth it. I have to share a quick story that really brought me back to the true meaning of Christmas this year....

I was putting Reagan to bed Christmas eve and I was reading her "The Crippled Lamb" if you havent read it it is a great christmas story. I wasnt sure if she would listen to it since there are kind of a lot of words to read on one page and well...she two so you know how impatient they can be. While I was reading the story about a little lamb that has a bad leg and therefore cant go to the greener pasture with the other lambs, Reagan was listening very intently. The story goes on and it ends up that because the little lamb was unable to go to the pasture with the other lambs he ends up being in the stable when the baby Jesus was born and helps to keep the new king warm. As I turned to the page where baby Jesus was laying in the manger, Reagan sat up in the bed and looked at the baby. She rubbed her hand over him and leaned forward and kissed him. At that moment I was overcome with emotion and almost wasnt able to finish the story. It was a perfect end to the day and a perfect way to remind me what we are truly greatful for this holiday season.