Christmas - 2011

Christmas day began early for us at about 6:00 am.  Luckily Ryan and I were able to distract the kids for about an hour before Papa and GiGi woke up.  Due to the large amount of presents as evidenced in this picture:

we had about three rounds of opening gifts.  The first round was our stockings and Isla dove right into hers:

She then proceeded to help all of us open our stockings as well and was very excited to see what Santa brought us.  Out of all the fun toys Santa put in Drew's stocking, this was what he chose to play with:

Figures.  After the stockings we took a break for breakfast and waited for the rest of the family to get up  then it was on to the rest of the presents.  Isla was eager to get back to it (please note how the bows are lined up in this picture - we fear she may have a tiny bit of OCD):

Isla was very excited about her baby crib that Aunt Anna got for her:

Mr. Drew was also very excited about the gift he got from Santa (as another side note, please notice Miss Sassy pants in the background with the hand on her hip):

I love this picture with Ryan and cousin Drew in the background (and Hobbes the dog of course) - one of my favorites of the trip:

So our third and final round of presents was at Grandma Connie and Papa Randy's house.  We took the kids over there Christmas afternoon to visit and open gifts:

After three rounds of opening gifts this boy had just about reached his limit:

Christmas night we took it easy.  All of the cousins and some of the aunts and uncles went on a sleigh ride late that evening.  Ryan and I decided to pass due the late hour and the lack of snow, but they had a great time.  Here are some of the sleigh riders plus Ryan getting warmed up before the ride:

It was definitely a magical Christmas and we felt so blessed to be surrounded by all of our family!