A very merry Christmas, indeed!

Christmas was a very good day this year. No stress, just the right amount of gifts and being with family. We did our big meal at dinner time so I had all day to get ready and it was fabulous. No rushing, no running around.

Kami and Taylor woke up about 7 a.m. (their normal time) and Kami yelled, "I DID make it onto Santa's List!!" She was so excited. :D She waited very patiently while Taylor had his banana. He can't function properly without his banana...it's kinda like his caffeine, I guess. ;) So then Kami opened her presents from Santa and Taylor wanted all of her presents, especially the Dora figure, but wasn't interested in opening his gifts at all. He just doesn't care about presents. Maybe it's his age or maybe his personality, or maybe a mixture of both. Kami loves to open presents so she opened his, too, and then he played with the toys. :D Funny boy!

After opening Santa gifts, I made pancakes and the kids played with their toys and Tim fell asleep on the couch. :D After breakfast, we just kinda hung out and lazed around the house. Taylor went down for a nap and I went to take a very long, hot bath. It was great!! Then it was time for Kami's "rest time." (I don't know why I even call it a rest time anymore, she never rests. I think I'll change the name to quiet play time in your bed, which is way more realistic!) Soon after, Taylor woke up, got a snack and Mimi and Poppi (Tim's mom and dad) showed up!

I started making preparations for dinner and then we opened family presents. Mimi and Poppi got us some wonderful things that we are all looking forward to playing with and using!! After we opened presents I took my time in the kitchen getting all the food ready while the kids played with their grandparents. I made garlic cheddar biscuits, roasted asparagus with browned butter balsamic sauce, heated up some ham, and Tim made the mashed potatoes. It was all on the table at 5:30 p.m. and the kids ate it up and so did everyone else! We had Snickerdoodle cake for dessert. :)

The kids were both asleep by 8:30 p.m., which is great for as much activity they had during the day. We stayed up and talked to Tim's parents for a couple of hours and then when they went to bed we started watching Leatherheads. I fell asleep during it, so hopefully we'll finish it tonight.

Today we went to Wal-Mart at 7:45 a.m. or so and it wasn't busy at all. We got a cart full of stuff for 50% off and now my gift stash is replenished, for girl presents anyway and I'm set for wrapping paper and other assorted things. Since we received quite a few gift cards for Christmas, this trip didn't cost us anything! How cool is that?

After we came back, I made a fairly large brunch of hashbrown casserole, eggs (Tim made the sunny-side up variety for his dad and him), bacon and fruit. Then it was time for Mimi and Poppi to head back home. The kids were very sad for them to go, but as soon as they left, Tim took Kami on a Daddy Date, so that took some of the sting out of it for her. They went to see Madegascar 2. Taylor had to take a nap, but he soooo needed one!

For dinner tonight I made hamburgers and french fries. Standing over the fries made me think back to my mom making me french fries when I was a little girl and it made me smile. My kids gobbled up the fries so I think they were a big hit! Those will definitely go into the regular rotation around here, now.

And now that I've written a novel, it's time to get my kids in bed. I hope everyone had as wonderful a Christmas Day as I did! Hugs and love!