Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas Catch-Up

Don't miss the Christmas posts below!!

Christmas Day 2011

Christmas morning!!  Caroline woke up at about 7:30 so we were glad to sleep in a little. Caroline couldn't wait to see if Santa came...looks like he did!
She asked for two things this year...a car she could drive and a candy cane. She's been such a good girl, Santa was able to grant both requests :-)
Discovering her car...she was excited!!!
Concentrating on her driving

Santa also thought she deserved more than one candy cane and filled her stocking with them
Oops, Santa forgot to remove the tags from Target :-)
Caroline kept saying "How did Santa know I love PEZ?"
Can you believe Santa completely forgot to put all of Matthew's goodies in his stocking?!? I just know Santa was so upset and will hopefully never make that mistake again! Luckily, Caroline didn't notice (and of course Matthew had no idea...whew)

Mimi, PopPop, Daddy and Caroline all going to town on their Christmas presents
Caroline got lots of movies this year...and a few to add to her Disney collection (Alice in Wonderland, Bambi & Tangled)

Matthew "opened" a few gifts with the help of Matt...
...and then just wanted to take Caroline's necklaces in and out of a box :-)

Caroline loved her princesses from Mimi and PopPop
Matthew was excited about his basketball goal and very own lego table


He liked the lego table the best because he could climb on it (of course!)
 
Singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus
Breakfast time...love Matthew in this pic
Some sister/brother pics after most of the presents were opened:


Walking!

After a terrfic morning at Mimi and PopPop's house, we got dressed and  headed to my mom's house to have Christmas with her, my brother, aunt and Nannie
Yaya and Caroline looking at a Max & Ruby DVD my mom gave her
Matt helped Matthew open his gifts again. These two guys really are buddies!!
"Look, balls, my favorite!!!!!!!!!!"

A ball in each hand=one happy Matthew!!!

My mom gave Caroline this precious jewelry box with a ballerina inside that spins around and plays music when the lid is opened...Caroline was in awe!


She also loved her Madeline movies and Madeline doll...we are REALLY into Madeline these days!

Caroline's favorite gift she received at my mom's house, however, was this Fur-Real dog...you can walk this dog on a leash, it barks, whimpers, etc... and is so real. She played with it the rest of the day. Glad she likes it because it's the closest she's going to get to having a dog, haha

Caroline and Nannie
My mom and me
Some of the Krauss clan (excuse the flash in the mirror):
PopPop, Mimi & Uncle Marcus
Caroline loves to play this game we call "Pile On"...she yells out "Pile on Daddy" and we all go jump on top of Matt. We both love it...Matt, not so much!
We spent the rest of Christmas Day at my mom's house. She cooked us a delicious Christmas meal, and we enjoyed sitting around and talking while the kiddos played with their toys. So thankful for this wonderful day to be together with our family and celebrate the birth of our Savior who was born so He could die for us. Merry Christmas!!

'Twas the day before Christmas

We began Christmas Eve with another new family tradition...we went to Brother Bill's Helping Hand to help pass out Christmas presents to the neighborhood kids and families. Matthew stayed with my mom, but Caroline was old enough to help us serve.
We had such a great time! Our friends, the Goodales, were there and we all got to be host families. That meant we took a sweet family through the stations at Brother Bill's and helped them collect all of their goodies. We had a huge family that consisted of a grandfather, two moms, and seven kids...Hannah (12), Emily (5), Annabelle (3), Adam (2), Joshua (2), Allison (1) & Matthew (8 months). I have some cute pictures of Caroline with her new friends, but I don't want to post the other kids' pictures without permission. It was so fun getting to know the family, love on those sweet kids and tell them how much Jesus loves them! I was sad to say goodbye and almost forgot to hand baby Allison back to her mother (I'm so used to holding a baby...oops :-)
 After Brother Bill's, we grabbed a quick lunch at Chick-Fil-A with the Goodales then headed home so the kids could take naps before our church's Christmas Eve service.
The candlelight service was wonderful...I look forward to it all year, and it is my favorite part of Christmas. We came home after church and took some family pics, opened our one traditional Christmas present, put Matthew to bed then ate a yummy dinner Mimi cooked for us.
Daddy and his Jr.
(who, BTW, was already sucking his thumb in the picture which means it's bedtime...it was probably 6:59 p.m.)









New Christmas pajamas of course!








Listening to Daddy read her last advent devotional and the Christmas story from Luke 2:

Hanging on the last ornament! Jesus' birthday is coming!