This is how present opening went Christmas morning...

After Mass we came home for brunch with the family and tried to get some good pictures in front of the tree.  Cecilia was NOT okay with this, so we gave her a present to appease her.

But you know what happens when a little boy hears the word "present" - he has to come running!

And here you see the little hand going for his sister's present...

But the ribbon was tricky, so Dad had to come in to help.

Cecilia was happy to observe John Paul opening a present.

But she finally got hers back!

Only to have it ripped away by her brother, who hands her some wrapping paper and kisses her to make up for it!

Then, despite having a pile of his own presents, John Paul had to steal the present back from Cecilia after we gave it to her.

Once again, the ONLY acceptable present is the one your sibling is playing with!

Luckily, Grandma showed them that they can play TOGETHER!

And here they are later, in various states of undress...  Aunt Sister was just TOO excited by the matching Star Wars!

Hope your Christmas morning was less hectic than ours!

Merry Christmas!

It's 7:15 and we've already been up for an hour...

Cecilia decided to wake up giggling at 6:15.  Andrew was up until the wee hours of the morning singing Midnight Mass, so I took her downstairs, where we turned on the monitor and found that John Paul was awake, too!

So the kids have been happily playing with their Christmas Eve present (a Little People nativity) and their stocking stuffers (so far John Paul's favorite is a set of alphabet wall decals, and Cecilia is loving her nativity-themed rubber duckies).

Cecilia was happy to have it to herself for a few minutes!

But John Paul had to come along and ruin the moment :P

Luckily, a camera is a whole lot more exciting than a toy!

And as you can see, the sun was only just starting to rise...

John Paul's first action upon coming downstairs (after he finished being excited about his new toy):  He came over to the grown-up nativity set and exclaimed, "BABY JESUS IS BORN!!!"

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve!

So we decorated the tree - John Paul's ornaments, surprisingly enough, ended up on the lower third of the tree.

He got to hang a lot of small wooden ornaments all by himself!

But he still needed a little help...

Andrew helped finish the tree and hang the instruments on the tall branches!

And here's the finished product, sans tree topper (which we STILL don't have!).  Notice the almost complete lack ornaments near the bottom?  Despite having hung them himself, John Paul couldn't resist taking them down to try to play with them.  So they all moved their way up to the higher branches.

Surprisingly enough, Cecilia was enchanted!

But not enough so to keep her from trying to get the camera from me...

And they both decided to look at it together.

Until John Paul decided he really needed a hug!

A frequent sight at our house...  The toddler tackle!

And here's the proud decorator!

Done with Advent?

Andrew, lamenting a sports score:  "Oh, come on!"

John Paul:  "O Come O Come Emmanuel?"

We may be done with this Advent thing, and just in time!

Santa loves me...

Shh don't tell, I know what I'm getting for Christmas...

And I'm SO excited.  Seriously.  Those boots.  Amazing.  And on a really great sale!  Much like John Paul anxiously awaits his basketball hoop, I'm anxiously awaiting my new boots.  And I'm not even going to cheat and wear them out of the house before Christmas!  I just needed to try them on to make sure they fit.  And went well with my jeans.  At least two pairs.  You know it's necessary...