Merry Christmas!

So it's around 9:40pm and I just finished washing all the dishing and cleaning up everything from dinner. So far it's been a great day of opening presents, playing with new toys, eating way too much food and having fun with family. And there are still brownies and ice cream to go. I'm not quite sure where they're going to fit in my stomach, but I'm just going to have to find a place.

It all started at about 7 this morning when Sydney woke-up and we were off. We stalled her and Noah for a couple minutes so that we could get the cameras ready for their initial reaction to all the gifts waiting for them under the tree. We had not put any of them out before late last night so that they wouldn't get opened and played with before Christmas. It was hard enough keeping their hands of the ornaments, let alone the gifts. Anyways, they were so excited to see all their presents waiting for them. We bought both kids bikes, we'll a bike for Syd and a trike for Noah, and they were just sitting out waiting for the kids and when they saw them they were so excited. My parents also bought Noah the most awesome tool bench with all these great moving and noisy tools that we just left out so that it would already be set-up and we wouldn't have to spend a couple hours trying to figure out how the pieces all went together while the kids climbed all over us in excitement. Anyways, they spent the first probably 15 minutes playing with the tool bench before even touching the stocking or other gifts. (Thanks Mom and Dad, they both love it! And yeah for a few quiet minutes for me now hopefully!)

Anyways, we spent the next close to two hours or more opening and playing with each new toy that was unwrapped. The kids had a blast and we had so much fun watching them. It was really nice to have Jeff's family joining us this year to share in the fun and excitement. The kids loved sharing their toys with them, especially things like the tea set stuff that Syd got. She served everyone tea (with water she went and got herself from the bathroom, and later made a huge mess with pouring everywhere - new rule, no water when playing with the kitchen toys, or any other toys except bath toys for that matter!). Anyways, the kids were totally spoiled and had so much fun. I have absolutely no idea where to put all the new toys and so far they're just laying all over the floor waiting for tomorrow and hopefully a little more energy to clean them up and find a place for them.

After a long present opening, we all start down to a super yummy breakfast at around 11:15. I was so confused with time that the kids started freaking out a little after breakfast and Jeff realized that they were already WAY past nap time and need to sleep. So, they went to sleep and so did I.

After a nice nap I woke with a bad feeling that I had forgotten something. I soon realized what it was... I had forgotten to take the roast out of the freezer yesterday that I was planning for our dinner tonight so it was still frozen when I was supposed to be starting to cook it. I quickly ran to the freezer, pulled the meat out and filled a sink with water to try and "quick defrost" the roast. It took a couple hours but finally made it. So I sadly started cooking dinner when I was originally planning on eating dinner. Thankfully everyone was still pretty full from breakfast and after a small snack all stomachs were happy. As soon as I put our roast in the oven we all hopped in the van and took off for the beach. We went for a wonderful walk along the beach as the sun was setting. It was absolutely beautiful. The water was close to the same temperature as the air and so nice to dip your feet in. It was a wonderful time of relaxing before the mad dash of completing dinner. I'm kinda lost in the whole "Christmas" feel of the day, especially spending 45 minutes at the beach but well, it's still been a wonderful day.

We'll brownies are now waiting for me and I think I've wasted enough time here to let my stomach empty a little more so there might be enough room for a couple bites. Hope you all had as wonderful of a Christmas as our family!