Christmas Eve and Day

On Christmas Eve, the girls were sooo excited! You could just feel it in the air all day. We made some brownies that morning and put the presents under the tree. (I held off because I knew they would be shaken to death by Christmas). They could barely keep their little hands off of them checking out each and every tag. Nick and Alex and Drew hung around all day and Tyler and Emily came over that afternoon. They brought their Wii. They had a ball playing it. It's hard to watch your kids get older. Christmas can lose some of it's magic, but my boys genuinely seemed as excited as the girls this year. They love to tease them about hearing Santa's sleigh bells or getting a glimpse of him looking through the window as he's checking out whose naughty and nice. They love watching the girls' uncontainable excitement. We made our traditional big pot of Christmas Eve chili. Keith actually makes it, it's his dad's recipe and a favorite for the Nicholson clan. Then all the kids got to open one gift. The girls opened giant piggy banks to put allllll their change in that they collect when the boys leave it laying around. They were so thrilled and played for hours with those little things. (they were actually last minute dollar items I picked up while I was in line to get the jingle jammies at Old Navy.) All the boys (including our "son" Nick) and Emily opened jingle jammies and immediately ran to slip into them and get comfy.
Christmas Morning came too soon. The girls popped up early and ran in our room to wake us up! I sent them upstairs to wake up the "big kids". We made a pot of coffee and lit a fire and put on some Christmas music and got the camera and camcorder ready. Then after teasing the girls with gasps of "Oh my, would you look at what Santa brought this year". We let them come in. Gosh, I love the looks on their little faces. Not just the girls, but the boys watching the girls was priceless. Emma got a bike with a seat for her doll in the back. She also got pink pj's for her American girl doll. She's really been into dolls lately! Ellie got a DS and some games. Santa replaced the girls dvd player for the car and brought them a few new dvd's. (Boy does that make long trips easier). The boys and Emily each got money and the message bible (my favorite). Then Keith and the boys made a big breakfast while Emily and I played with the girls toys. Oh yeah, Ellie got a dog that eats and poops and Emma got a doll that swims in the tub and both the girls got a beauty shop for their Liv dolls. Later we headed to my sister Jeannie's to have Christmas dinner and see all my sisters and their husbands and kids. My nephew Will, who is the smartest 2 year old you'll ever meet, has been trying to figure out Christmikah. My sister's husband Ray is Jewish, so they celebrate Hanukkah (sp?) as well as Christmas. Out of the blue one day, Will said, "Ohhhhh, now I know why we light the candles... it's Jesus' Birthday!" He is just too smart! His wheels are always turning. Their daughter Maggie lets no one hold her except mommy (and Jeannie, since she kept her while Natalie worked). But she actually let me hold her. Only because she wanted to go to the playroom in the basement so badly and I'm the only one that would take her. She's a punkin! We played the cleanup game and every time she put a ball in the bucket I said, "Yay Maggie" and she'd hug me and then I'd melt! Jeannie's son Jonathan is a year older than Ellie. I played foozball with him and he clobbered me! He acts all tough, but when Miss Maggie tried to climb the stairs, he was the first to come to her rescue. He's very protective of all his little cousins, but would never admit it! Then there's Dawn's kids Matt and Brandy and Tom's kids Chris and Amanda. They're closer to my boys ages. Matt just got engaged and Chris is pretty serious with his girlfriend. I think in the next few years we'll have a few more weddings. Brandy just bought herself a loft and her and Amanda are really close. I took a family picture of them, I'll post it! All and all, it was a great Christmas!!!