December - 24hr Christmas Whirlwind

Christmas Eve & the priority of the night:

Leaving a trail of reindeer food outside so Santa would know to stop at our house.

Leaving no chances, she sprinkled a food path RIGHT UP to the door... so Santa would know how to get inside, of course.
On to Mima & Pop Pop's presents!
Nope. Nick wanted no part of opening gifts.
All he wanted for Christmas was his bowl of goldfish & juice.

FINALLY........................... We got him to open a box (and that was basically after unwrapping it for him) - and look at that smirck! SO excited for new Legos!!
Then the process started all over again when he refused to open anything else because he only wanted his Legos..... *sigh*....
Adrienne was an all-out-pro this year in tearing through her gifts. One of the biggest hits of the holiday - her Itty Baby highchair and Itty Baby food!
(I was informed that Itty Baby has been very hungry since her arrival last Christmas... who knew.....!?)

Mima, Pop Pop & the wee ones


And a Billows family shot
Off to Ted & Anne's where Nick, in the spirit of Christmas, hustled poor Sean out of 1/2 his newly opened gifts....
(Sean! He's making up the rules as he goes! Don't let him fool ya!)
Yiayia Lou arrived with the best gift of all.... MUNCHKINS!


Back home to set the scene for Santa's (and Rudolph's) arrival...


10 hours later.............

Merry Christmas!
And Nick is RIGHT back to his refusal to participate in the gift opening process.
OK, so MAYBE he was a little crabby because I didn't snap his onesie - I didn't think he would care!! Oh wait, no.... I think it's more of the fact that I changed his diaper, put on a pull-up but never actually PULLED IT UP. Somehow I got his pants up but the poor kid's diaper was around his knees. Oops. Sorry buddy.
Alright... here we go.... let the chaos of gifts reign down....

Moo.
Showing off her superhero cape & her PILLOW PET!!!
(she's sitting on it)
Ahhh, nothing like the silence of peace & quiet that befalls the land when consumed with dozens of new toys.....
On to Yiayia & Papou's house where Santa had ALSO made a stop the night before....
Sure you got your arm in there all the way.....?!
She didn't know which way to turn... there were piles... and I mean PILES of gifts for her!!

Handsome little elf!

Hey! Gimme back my doggie mask!

Goofy, yes.
Guard dog, not so much.
But the best pure-joy-Christmas shot of 2010 goes to Tori
(upon opening our gift, of course)

After Yiayia & Papou's we headed to my parents house for lunch & MORE gifts.

(spoiled rotten kids!!!)

I never even managed to get the camera out of the bag.... before we knew it we had to hit the road for our first family...........................