Christmas Eve/Christmas Day 2011

What? You haven't celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2011? Well, we decided to go ahead and celebrate early this year. We do have a good reason. Really. We were going to be leaving on Tuesday for Russia, and so we had planned to have Christmas this past Friday and Saturday. Due to delays it looks like we will return to Russia in  January/February. We were devastated by this news so we decided to just keep our appointment with Santa that we had made. We needed a little Christmas to cheer us up. The kids weren't upset, let me tell you! And I always have a hard time w a i t i n g for the excitement of the presents. :)

Anna made Tyler and I presents - written notes with pictures of our family members and how much shes loves us and wants to be a forever family. Awww!

I like this candy bar. Yum.

Keith was thrilled with the airplane book. It really is pretty cool. 

Anna opening up some pretend play food - she loves serving us meals. :)

Keithy asked Santa Claus for a really BIG airplane. His wish was granted.

Iryna loves Buzz Lightyear.

I found this remote control helicopter for super cheap online. I am surprised by how much ALL the children enjoy it. The one downside is that Tyler is the only one who can fly it - I guess it's super complicated to fly a helicopter. Who knew, right? ;)

Anna LOVES to pass out all the presents. She is such a great helper.

Tyler bought me an iPad for Christmas! I even get an orange cover for it. :)

I bought Tyler a Oklahoma State University Cowboys hoodie. He is a super big fan of our alma mater. 

In December I wear Red Door perfume/powder/lotion. This year I ran out and so Tyler restocked it. It included a small red purse and a big red bag. Love them!

All three kids in their Christmas jammies. The girls still fit in the ones from last year. :)

On Christmas Eve we ate peasant soup, read the Christmas story and acted it out with the nativity, sang Christmas Karaoke, and put together gingerbread houses...this year was THE WORST in our gingerbread house activity. We ended up throwing it away because it kept collapsing. I think next year we'll just decorate gingerbread men. :)

Maggie got a candy cane chew toy. :)

Anna had her musical theater production the day before "Christmas Eve." She did...okay. Most of the time we could barely see her because she was hiding standing in the back row.

Since we're going to be home for the actual Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year, I think we will focus on the religious aspect of Christmas. Plus there are SO many great movies to watch this time of year - perhaps a movie day is in order. We got the Polar Express and have yet to see it. Merry Christmas! :)

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