the night before christmas

 The Christmas marathon began on Saturday, Christmas Eve, and didn't really stop until Monday.  Last night I pretty much crashed and burned.  I fell asleep sometime before 9:30 (which is unreal since I usually go to sleep sometime after midnight) and didn't wake up until Elaina woke me up at 7:20.  I was out like a light, fell asleep in half pjs half regular clothes and vaguely remember thinking in the middle of the night that I was hot in all my clothes but never woke up enough to do anything about it.  Even though I was exhausted by the end of it, Christmas was so much fun this year!  It is even more fun being able to share it with our little girl.  She really did love it even more than I expected her to!!  She was totally into playing with her presents, not just the wrapping paper!

So, Friday night I stayed up late baking strawberry bread (a Christmas tradition my mom started) so we could drop it off to our neighbors the next day.

Houston and Elaina - she was so tired since we made her skip her morning nap!

After doing some chores around the house we went around to all our neighbors dropping off our treats.  I realized that I've gotten really used to waking up early.  It was 11 in the morning and all three of us were dressed and ready for the day (and had been for quite a few hours might I add).  Every single one of our neighbors were still in their pjs!!  I was actually a little jealous... :)

mommy and my munchkin getting ready to say merry christmas to our neighbors

 That afternoon we went to church with my family.  I love going to Christmas Eve mass.  It just kicks off Christmas for me!  It doesn't quite feel the same without it for some reason!

my whole fam

love my little fam!!

 After church we headed over to Houston's parents house for some major Christmas festivities!  We all got to make our own pizzas, which turned out amazingly!!  I think this new tradition is a keeper!  Victor also made some amazing lasagna and salad to go with the pizza.  Definitely my kind of meal.  We decorated little birthday cakes for Jesus' birthday.  This tradition comes from Nick's family and he and Julie have continued doing it.  I've always loved the idea and thought it was so cute, but for some reason I've never been able to participate until this year.

 I was SO excited to decorate my Jesus birthday cake, but Elaina had other plans.  In the picture above, she is sitting in a high chair to my right.  All of a sudden she started fussing and I go to pick her up and there is poop EVERYWHERE.  Ay! So glamorous this mothering job!  So, off to the bathtub we went.

After her bath break, Elaina was SO excited to hear about the birth of Jesus.  Austin and Emma dressed up as Joseph and Mary.  And, baby Charlie got all swaddled, ready to play baby Jesus!  I love this tradition of acting out the nativity.  This is something I didn't grow up with and I think it is so much fun.  Austin and Emma took their job very seriously!

"Baby Jesus"

Cute little "family"

  While we read the Night Before Christmas and sang some Christmas carols, Santa surprised us with a visit!! Austin was SO excited.  Seriously the cutest thing.  Santa even brought little presents for each of the kids.

ho ho ho!

Austin and Santa

Elaina and Santa - "who the heck is this guy?!"

Santa and near-meltdown-Mckayla!

 After Santa came this mama was finally able to finish my mini birthday cake!  It wasn't as fun finishing it by myself since everyone else was already done but, I was determined!  Happy Birthday Jesus!

Everyone in the family opened their Christmas jammies since it was definitely way passed bedtime.  The kiddos were so freakin cute in their matching jammies!  I loved it!

Austin and his girls

nana and papi with their texas grandkiddos
we really missed our haylie girl this christmas!

 We put all the babes to bed and the grown-ups (that sounds so weird calling myself a grown up) talked, cooked, watched a movie, etc.  We eventually packed up our sleeping baby and headed home around midnight.  Last year Houston and I opened our stockings on Christmas eve and I really liked it for some reason!  We probably won't do it again next year but we went ahead this year!  H got some gift cards to his favorite fast food spots, an orange, and an sparkly cheeseburger ornament!  Santa kind of forgot about my stocking this year.  I got an orange (woohoo!) and a cupcake ornament I bought myself! ha.  Harley even got in on the action with a massive candy cane bone and some doggy treats. She was in puppy heaven.