New Year's Eve at Longwood Gardens

And so the Sun sets on 2011.

Some of the imposing trees in Longwood Gardens. I like this shot a lot.

Mommy and Eliana taking a stroll through Longwood Gardens.

I'll write more about this later, but the kids are up and we're getting ready to celebrate 2012!

Cousins!

Had a visit this week from our cousins from NJ. L-R Morgan, Evan, Mykenzie, Maddie, Ava, and Eliana. I get the feeling Evan likes being surrounded by this many girls.

My Boy is Shaving Now.

That's right, Evan is shaving at the age of 3. Actually, he got a Spongebob bath play set for Christmas, and it had a plastic razor and shaving cream.

Evan wanted to go right upstairs and try it out right away. Wanted to shave just like his Dad.

Christmas Cookies

On Christmas Eve we made our 2nd annual Christmas Cookies.

First, put some flour on the table. This is going to to be messy!

Roll out the dough.

Add some sprinkles.

Add more sprinkles.

Things got a bit messy...

Add even more sprinkles.

Freshly baked and ready to eat!

Time to Get the Donuts

Evan woke me up at 8am this morning, (early for him,) and insisted that we go downstairs and see if Santa had left him some more presents. I assured him that Santa comes but once a year, but he wanted to go downstairs right then and there just to be sure. Now he's decided that as soon as his television show is over, that we are going out "to get donuts."

Christmas Day 2011

The Christmas Tree all ready at 7am. That's right, 7am! We were up all night preparing for Santa's arrival. Santa's elves were busy wrapping presents, and were feeling like zombies by the time the sin came up. I went to 'bed' at 7:30 in Evan's room hoping and praying that he didn't decided to wake up. Luckily, they both slept until about 9:30am.

Then at 10am, it was time to open presents!

Eliana checks out her Yo Gabba Gabba guitar.

Mommy and the kids quietly opening presents. I like the fact that they opened a present, played with it for a few minutes, then went on to the next one. They took hours to open all the presents rather than blowing through all of them in 15 minutes. Eliana opened the last of her presents after dinner tonight.

Eliana with her Sesame Street setup.

Christmas gift fatigue starts setting in after a few hours...

But the sad face goes away once you see what's inside!

'Twas the night before Christmas

They are finally asleep. Eliana went to bed early at her own request. They took a nice warm bath, then Eliana wanted her bottle and it was time for "Nite nite." Evan on the other hand likes staying up late. Even when we told him Santa may skip the house if he's still awake. We read "The Night Before Christmas" and "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas," for Evan's bedtime stories tonight. Evan was very excited about Christmas and finally went to sleep around 11:30pm.

Eliana has been passed out for hours. She seems to be excited about tomorrow, but I'm not sure if she understands how crazy tomorrow morning is going to be. We've got a lot of wrapping to do before Santa 

arrives, so it looks like it's going to be a super late night.