Christmas Candids

Looking through the more than 600 Christmas photos, these jumped out at me!! Such fun times over the Christmas season! Most of the pics are of Julia and William as Katie played photographer throughout the season. The little ones are at that magical Christmas age ... wish I could freeze time!! Before we know it, it will be Christmas 2011!!

Daddy's little girl!

Mailing her Santa letter. She made sure to go early enough so it had alot of time to get to the North Pole

I looked up from the computer to see Rudolph reindeer twins!

BFFs

Take my picture, Katie!!

I love Christmas ... THIS MUCH!!

Our little drummer boy!

Christmas Morning

So for the first year that I can remember, the kids did not wake up at the crack of dawn. It was past 7 before they meandered downstairs for presents galore!!! Not only did Santa find us but all our presents from Grandma, Oma & Pawpy and the aunts and uncles flooded the living room!!

We all were so happy seeing Christmas through the eyes of William. His excitement was infectious!! He couldn't get enough .... he was cheering when everyone opened their gifts, loved everything he got. But favorite gift had to be the Toy Story stunt set. We set it up and ran it probably 1000 times over the course of the Christmas break!!

Julia is the perfect age to shop for Christmas. So fun buying art supplies, pet shops, a big doll house, some clothes, and her own itouch. She took her time opening her gifts, looking at each one, and she had a pile left after everyone else was done!

Matthew is the easiest to shop for. He loves everything from electronics to toys to clothes. He got his own XBOX with kinect, tons of Nerf gun accessories, new jerseys, legos and much more!!

Katie was showered with clothes, books, itunes cards, an ipad and jewelry. She was super helpful with the younger ones and really took time to watch everyone open their gifts!!

Andrew still loves opening all the gifts even though he is almost 14!! He got his yearly Guinness Book of World records, tearable calendar, a few clothes, Itunes cards and an Ipad!!

But the highlight of Christmas has to be PING PONG TABLE!!! Yeah Grandma Wilkie for the amazing family gift!!

A don't forget about the stockings ... they are all set with gum, candy, toiletries and a bunch of fun other stuff!!

Christmas Eve

After much anticipation, Christmas Eve finally arrived!! Oma and Pawpy were with us this Christmas. We started our festivities by going to Mass at Corpus Christi. We are so blessed to have our church so close to our home!! We love our church. Even when we move to Windermere, we will stay at Corpus Christi even though Holy Family is only 3 miles away!!

Andrew and Katie both served the Mass. What a special blessing it is to see your children on the altar serving the church. So proud of both of them.

The kids could hardly wait to get through dinner so we could sprinkle the reindeer food on the lawn, open one present from Daddy and listen to Pawpy read Twas the Night Before Christmas. We even put William in the Zwarte Piet bag for a photo op. In Holland, they put the naughty children in this bag and tell them they will ship them off to Spain. Kind of scary and William was not naughty. Just a funny picture to send to Holland to Oma's family.

Dad got tickets to the Magic for Matthew, Katie and Andrew and to the Disney Magic show for Julia & William. It was a magical kind of night!!

ICE with Friends

We went to ICE at the Gaylord Palms once again with the Tanners and Gambles. We had a blast doing both the ICE main display (complete with ice slides) and then the snow room where you could build snowmen, tub rides and throw snowballs. Not quite the same as real winter, but the best thing was, going outside into the Florida weather!! We ended the evening with a big dinner at Kobe steakhouse!! So lucky to share part of the Christmas season with amazing friends!!

Snow Time

It wouldn't be Christmastime without several trips to downtown Celebration for the snowfall. Julia and William loved going and had fun with Daddy dancing to the music and trying to catch the snowflakes (soapflakes!!).

Christmastime - William's Style

Now that William is in school, we have another set of Christmas events!! At CommPres they had a nice Christmas party with a visit from the big guy himself, Santa during the school day!! And in the evening, they had a full Christmas program. William was quite the performer (and character) during the singing!! All of the siblings came (except for Katie who had volleyball!) ... and they were so, so proud of William!

Christmastime - Julia Style

Julia had an incredible Christmas. The picture above sums it up ... a magical time for a five year old. Loving the story of the baby Jesus, anxious to write her letter to Santa, patient when we were untangling the Christmas lights, helpful in the kitchen with all the holiday baking. I really enjoyed Christmas with Julia this year.

All the girls in her class went to a performance downtown Orlando of a Junie B Jones play. Just a day for Julia and Mommy!! So fun.

Julia had a great Christmas party at school (we were thrilled that it was a Christmas party and not a holiday party or winter party!! Love Ms. Griffin and her strong Christian convictions!) And of course the party day is not complete until Elf Ratt shows up!

Julia's kindergarten class took a field trip to Epcot to celebrate Christmas around the world. It was a great day with friends (and William got to come!).