oh thank you santa, thank you!

Hazel was so much fun this year and loved everything Christmas, especially the lights and playing with the 'away in the manger' sets. She was also obsessed with Santa Claus and reindeer and was very excited to open all of her presents.

We spent Christmas Eve and morning at my sister's house, and we thought it would be fun to do a small homemade gift exchange. We decided not to do a gift exchange with the whole family this year since we are all broke- but the homemade gifts were so much fun that I want to do that next year with everyone. So family, get on board :)

Hazel, Dan and I made the boys hollow books so they could store their secret things and Isaac made Shane some fudge. My mom made Hazel adorable puppets, Cam made me an awesome bookmark, and Nathan made Isaac an awesome Angry Bird Scientist to keep at work. My dad made Keri a tshirt that made everyone cry (it was so sweet), David made my mom some Scrabble coasters, and Shane made delicious chocolates for Dan and Dad. This was probably my favorite gift exchange ever!

That night Dan and Isaac broke out some amazing moves while playing the Kinect

We woke Hazel up on Christmas morning and told her that Santa came. She exclaimed, "but I didn't hear any bells!"

 

  She was so excited to see all of the gifts, and kept exclaiming, "Oh, thank you Santa, thank you!!"

haze got lots of pots and pans and food for her new 'yittle kithen'

this was an all things lego christmas for the boys

loves her uncle 'dan-el'

looves her bee backpack from Isaac's coworker

pink fishing pole from daddy

i finally got my act together and finished isaac's quilt. wooo, i need a bigger/nicer sewing machine before i attempt to quilt something that size again.

i also made hazel a horsey blanket, and lots of felt food and other home made gifts. maybe some day i'll take a picture of all of them, they turned out pretty cute.

On Christmas afternoon, Hazel was still talking about the fact that Santa was going to come and it would be Christmas soon. We explained to her that it was Christmas today and she got very upset and said, "It's not Christmas! There's no snow!" Indeed, a brown and dry Christmas just isn't quite the same.

After going to church (and listening to Shane sing) we spent the afternoon and evening with more family before heading home and crashing in front of a movie. It was a wonderful day!