Christmas Eve

(Click to enlarge...You have to see these sweet faces up close!)

Did Christmas really come and go just like that? I'm afraid so...but it sure was a great one for the kids who were thoroughly satisfied with Santa's passage this year. I have to admit that they were just plain wonderful over the last year, and were adequately rewarded :) You just can't help buying an extra gift or two when you are so excited to make the little ones happy!!! Kaitlyn was VERY easy to please this year and was more than satisfied with her pop-up castle tent and set of Disney Princess dolls. Erik was HUGELY into pokemon this year, so Santa found almost all of the rare cards he was longing for---complete with a few albums to put them in. Krista asked mainly for scrapbook supplies, photos and books which Santa easily managed. She has made some fabulous pages over the last few days! I have nearly no time for scrapbooking lately, so I"m happy to pass along this task to Krista! She is so creative and has such an eye for design. I'm always truly impressed with her pages. The big gift this year (for the older 2) was the Nintentdo Wii game station. I'm NOT a fan of kids sitting in front of video games, but I was so happy to see Nintendo come up with this sporty/interactive video game concept. It is really neat to say the least. The kids work up a sweat playing tennis or boxing and then there is the Wii Fitness board for me! :)

Unfortunately my Mom went back home yesterday...We were so sad to see her leave. We all really miss having her around! It really did make Christmas special for us to have her here. I'm so glad she could share in on the excitement of Christmas with our family! She's now arrived safe and sound (sans baggage which is still unfortunately in Paris) and will have a week to rest up before her return back to work. THANKS so much for coming Mom!!!!

In other updates...the kids (and adults) DID have the stomach flu spread out over this past week which was no fun. Fortunately EVERYONE was healthy on Christmas Day, but Kaitlyn was up a good portion of Christmas eve night. Thankfully we are now over the hump and won't be catching it again anytime soon :)

So here are a few photos of the festivities. Krista had a role in the Mass on Christmas Eve, but those photos are on a different camera...It was a cute little play before the Mass begain. I'll try to post those later. For now here are a few fun shots of Christmas Eve. I'll get to the Christmas Day photos very soon!!! PROMISE!