Christmas

This really was a perfect Christmas.  It was so fun how excited the kids were about each of their presents.  

Here's the before shots.  We had two Christmas trees this year because we're cool like that.  And we wanted to wait to get a real tree so it would last longer.  And everyone needs a Christmas tree that looks like a disco ball.  

It took the kids a long time to notice the bikes.  Way longer than we thought it would.  I guess I  can't say anything though, because I walked past the stroller a couple of times before I noticed it.

 Here are the kids and Peter eating breakfast.  We realized late Christmas Eve that we had left all the sock stuff in the car.  The bananas were very green.  We tried to heat them up a bit, but it didn't work.  We choked down one banana between all five of us.

The kids each got a doll.

Benton and Peter made bean bags and a bean bag game for everyone.  It was a hit.

Here's Benton in his "prince costume" from Grandma.  The sword is from Brita.

The kids each got butterfly wings.  Benton might have been the most excited about them.  He was the most excited about a lot of things.

Brita in her princess dress.

The kids love the cash register.  That was one thing that we had been planning to get them since last Christmas.  They liked their stuffed animals that I made them, too.  When Benton opened up his arctic fox he said, "Oh, wow, a fox!  I always wanted a fox!"

The kids got a sled that they pulled various things around in.

Socks went fast.  Mima was the only one I got pictures of. opening hers.

That's what it looked like afterward.

The kids with my fancy new stroller and their dolls.  Benton was pretty much jumping up and down all day long.

Peter pulled the kids around in the sled.  The kids all had perma-smiles.  Peter almost died.  It was way too cold to be running around pulling a sled.

So then he let the kids do it.

This little boy was just so happy with everything he got.  So, so happy.

We did this puzzle.  The pieces were the shape of the countries and it made it a little frustrating when you accidentally bumped something and all of Eurasia was scattered everywhere.

Here's Peter playing "the kids'" clarinet.  You can also see the matching pajama pants I made.

And then it snowed.  Forever.  Two months later the snow has never melted and we're so sick of it.  We have a lot of sidewalk to shovel.  And a lot of driveway that never gets shoveled.  But the kids had fun sledding down the driveway.