a glimpse of Christmas

for those of you who could not be here with us due to the many miles that separate. This picture is after Santa had come, filled stockings, left gifts, eaten his cookies, chugged the milk, fed the reindeer and left glass fireplace doors open as a tell-tale sign he had visited our house:)



Xavier awoke at 2:00 and realized that it was Christmas morning after he rushed downstairs and saw that Santa had been here. He really wanted to see what was in his stocking and was less than thrilled when we told him he would have to wait until morning and that it was still the middle of the night! He woke up everyone in the house (except Dax...thankfully) by stomping up the stairs complaining loudly that this was the "worst Christmas ever!!" If that doesn't make you want to call up Santa and have him come back and take everything away, I don't know what does. Xavier did go back to sleep though and woke up all smiles....apparently it was no longer such a horrible experience after all.

Dax's face was so funny as he opened the gifts and exclaimed "It's just what I always wanted!!" to almost every gift.


Xavier enjoyed watching Dax open gifts almost as much as opening them himself.


Here's that face again!


Opening a special gift from Grandpa Lein. This one was a joint gift and they were so cute taking turns and each tearing a little part of the paper...


It's a recordable book! How cool.


Here they are opening "Grandma from MN" gifts.


It's a hit! They love their special quilts that Grandma made them. Batman for Xavier and Spiderman for Dax. The details on these are incredible!!


Time to spread them out so they can really see them.


And lay on them...


and eventually under them.


Since Steve was on call and we had plans with the rest of his family on the Sunday after Christmas, his parents came here to celebrate with us. They came Christmas Eve and stayed til after dinner on Christmas. It was so nice to have them here with us.

Thank you everyone! What a very blessed Christmas we had this year.