A little Christmas catch up

It seems that my blog has been on Christmas break, along with the rest of us. Time for a mini catch-up!

So.

Christmas was excellent. From our amazing church service on Christmas Eve morning all the way through three solid days of Christmas celebrations that didn't end until last night, we've enjoyed every second of our time with family and friends, celebrating the birth of our Savior, and the goodness that is holiday eating.

The Wilson clan, Christmas morning. 

The cousins from the Halverson clan, Christmas afternoon. 

Now it's all over and I'm left with 225 pictures to sort through, an unhealthy number on the bathroom scale, and numerous gifts that are still needing to find their home in our house and are currently residing in the middle of my living room floor.

I'm also left with quite a few favorite moments from the weekend... here are some of them:

- Singing happy birthday to Jesus with our kids to kick off Christmas morning.

- Kendall's retelling of the Christmas story, especially the part where "Mary consumed a baby in her belly", and her vivid description of the journey to Bethlehem on a donkey, where Mary and Joseph apparently had to cross a dangerous river containing a water snake that tried to attack the donkey, but luckily Joseph grabbed it and saved the day. (I'm going to go with "artistic liberty" on that one.)

- Seeing the beautiful job my sister did in transforming a school gymnasium into a beautiful Christmas sanctuary.

Our family at church Christmas Eve morning. 

- Surprising my husband with tickets to the NCAA basketball playoffs next March... totally shocking his socks off. It was awesome.

- Finally getting to open my new laptop - which we bought on Black Friday but kept wrapped under the tree for me to open Christmas day - and then still getting surprised by a secret gift from my husband (gift card for a shopping trip for new bedroom decor!)

- Receiving this awesome apron from my brother...

(I was a little excited)

And a Cricut Create from my parents! (I'm so spoiled.)

- Giving my mother-in-law the photobook I made of the past 5 years of our annual family summer beach trip... she loved it! Yay!

- Watching my kids open all their gifts... I'm sure that's what 80% of my Christmas pictures are of!

- Breaking out Kendall's new Just Dance 3 game and LOVING IT!

- Having special time with not only our immediate family but also grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and dear friends.

And that isn't even the half of it! So much to be thankful for this time of year. Including 6 more days of Christmas break - yeah!

Until it's over the blog posts may be a little sketchy ;)