Christmas Day

Seeing Christmas through the eyes of the kids brings a whole new meaning to the holiday. It is such a magical time of the year and really helps them understand what it means to believe in something you can't see or touch - to have faith.

Our Christmas day was spent at home here in Hawaii - starting just like many of you that have or had small children at one time...with a gift opening extravaganza.  After breakfast, we watched Elf (my second favorite Christmas movie...National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation being my very favorite :) while the boys put their new toys to work.  Later in the day, the Weidas joined us for dinner (I successfully made a beef tenderloin roast with seafood imperial.  Quite impressed by both I must say...my first time trying them out).  With Brian and Monica having a newborn, I offered to cook and bring dinner to them on Christmas, but we were so glad they decided to join us instead. Monica did a great job of taking pictures of the evening, so I'll wait until she posts and "borrow" a few from her to post on here :)

But here are the photo's I do have of the day...

Santa has delivered!

Our living room is a little dark, but here's a video of the kids when the first come downstairs...

Boys first look at the goods

Trying out the punching bag.  This thing didn't last more than a few hours around here before they popped a hole in it...Good intentions Santa, but no more punching bags for these boys :)

Marley is like having another toddler on Christmas. She LOVES opening presents and knows not to bother them under the tree until Christmas morning when we all open them.  We usually wrap some of her old toys just so she can partake in the gift opening too :)  She was so excited that when we weren't looking, she was going into the bag of trashed giftwrap and pulling pieces out to tear apart. 

You might be a teacher when..... you get nerdy gifts like a cart to drag your books to class from a far-away parking structure  and a bluetooth remote for powerpoints on your computer.

Each of the boys made us books of their drawings...our FAVORITE gifts!

A little dark, but Dylan and I posing with the book he made

I'm hoping Monica had a few pictures of our time later that evening, but these are the two I have...This is a fun drink I made for the kids fruit punch and sprite with an orange sherbert float