Happy Birthday Jesus!

I truly think Christmas gets more and more exciting every year with the girls.  This was the first year Clare knew the story of Jesus birth and spent a lot of time acting it out with her nativity set.  She was very excited to celebrate Jesus birthday on Christmas.  I think LD and I were as excited this year as we were when we were kids!!

Of course we started with stockings

Elle was so into it....wanting to be a big girl like her sister.

No, Elle did not get nail polish, but she sure was excited about it!!!

She did get a new laptop

and some anti slip socks, which were a challenge to walk in.

Clare got a keyboard,

And her highly requested Olivia house.  This is the one present she asked for from Santa!

And we had to stop all the present opening to assemble and play with Olivia!

We had such a fun day just playing in PJs!!

And being super silly!!

LD got a beautiful straw hat from Clare, which she was incredibly excited to give him.  Clare had $3 to spend on LD at the dollar store and he ended up with a flashlight, this great hat and a jumbo sized pen for work.  I know they were on the top of his wish list to Santa!

And the girls got a ball pit!!  When LD and I set it up on Christmas Eve we were very sad to see the pitiful number of balls they give you.  As you can see they don't even cover the floor.  So...we have a little work to do, but the girls were thrilled!

It's fun thats its big enough for our whole family to play in!

After all the presents we spent lots of time relaxing before heading over to our fun dinner plans!

We were invited to our great friends, the Aquaros for dinner.  They had a few family members and friends joining them...and they were all from Michigan!  This is Clare and Annie, their middle child at the kid table.  As you can see it was set up with candy and "kids juice" which Clare LOVED!!

We were so blessed to spend Christmas day with this sweet little boy and his family. They truly have become one of our Charlotte extended families and are such a blessing to us!

Clare bounced all around Joey all afternoon while he worked hard on his lego set.

 I am so thankful for my friendship with Maggie and the example of a Christian woman she is. 

We could not have asked for a better Christmas weekend!  We were not with family this Christmas, but the friends that we spend the holidays with have taken up residence in our hearts as family and we are blessed beyond measure God has allowed us such amazing friendships!

My parents are heading down as I type this and tomorrow will be Christmas morning all over again!  The girls have no idea what is in store.  I am THRILLED they are spending a week with us!!