Christmas Day

If you didn't notice in the previous post it will start to be obvious with this one . . . with each successive Christmas celebration I took less and less photos! Before I get to Christmas Day I guess I should wrap up Christmas Eve. We got home gave the boys quick baths and put them in matching pajamas (I know, I know, but they looked so cute).

Reed really got into the idea of Christmas this year. We talked about the baby Jesus, did an activity based advent calendar, and read lots of stories about Santa Claus and his reindeer. He was sooooo excited to leave Santa some snacks before heading to bed.

Christmas morning Reed woke at his normal, early, time and wanted to check out what Santa had left him. He even told us he had heard a sound during the night and he thought it was probably Santa. He was a little disappointed that Santa hadn't eaten every last crumb off of the plate we left him, but quickly got over it when he saw the goodies in his stocking. Mid-morning Nonna and Pepe came over to say hi and play with the boys. Pepe was a sweetheart and took our annual "pajama pictures" for us.

We put Reed down for an early nap, tried to pick up the house a bit, and got ready to head to Uncle Mark and Aunt Penny's. We got to hang out with everyone and I ended up having two free hands most of the afternoon as the kids were passed around.

Reed and Grand-Aunt Laurie

Kieran and Auntie M

Grandpa and the Kiddos

We had a great dinner, sitting at the kids table with Reed, Kieran, Annaliese, Grandpa, and Kari. After dinner we did a White Elephant style gift exchange and then got on the road. As we drove to Jon's Aunt Margie's house Reed pleaded to just go home. We debated on if we should even be dragging the boys to another spot, but decided we really wanted to see everyone. As soon as we got there Reed made a bee-line for Nonna. He went back and forth between the two of us for about 30 minutes and then it was like a switch flipped and he was super talkative and interacting with everyone. We participated in another gift exchange and Auntie P took over Kieran duty for awhile.

We would have loved to have stayed longer, but decided that we should get the boys home. This year was another great "Christmas Marathon" for the McClartys. I think the only thing we would change is being able to spend more time with everyone!!!