christmas morning

i am trying to catch up on posts before i leave for my trip, but considering how much i have to pack up, for myself and the kids (who are staying with cece for the first half of my trip) and how much housework i wanted to get done in recovery of christmas (lots of boxes, wrapping paper, gift bags to be sorted and stored, plus all that cleaning i put off in spirit of enjoying our last extended time together before leaving), it is becoming clear i will not get it all posted. wow that was one long run-on sentence and half of it was in the parantheses.

so this may be short on words, but the photos stand alone. here are some of my faves from the day.

(since we did not see any family, most of these presents were sent here from the burbs and texas. we were too hungry to wade through it all in one sitting, and broke it up into two sessions. and i am still trying to find room for everything.)

the tree surrounded with gifts

homemade stockings hung by the mantle with care laden with goodies

gia adoring her ballerina ornaments from scrunchies and viejo

luca hugs his dinosaur puzzle - thanks uncle jason and aunt michelle

gia's first dollhouse

luca showing off his hot wheels truck and i am modeling the necklace he picked out for me (lovely bedhead too)

watch out for freshly bathed dinosaurs when you come to our house

yummy cranberry-raisin-cinnamon french toast casserole

my sweet girl

handsome man feeling full

my lovely new scarf from scotland and beautiful teacup from austria from tia becky

guiness gear straight from the factory in ireland

the kitchen that took us two and half hours to build christmas eve!!!

classic christmas day photo - luca playing his leapster still wearing jammies and sporting his new spiderman hoodie that lights up when he moves - in his own words, "i look cool"