{Christmas 2011}

We are really lucky to have the ability to spend Christmas eve and day with both of our families and still have Christmas morning at our house. I cherish spending the holiday season with our families but I also love spending Christmas mornings with my family of four. It's kinda neat to have the time to just focus on our kids enjoying their presents from Santa and us.
We put presents on our stockings this year and the kids thought it was really fun.
Then it was time for the opening presents marathon.
William was so happy to get all (but the bike, more on that later) the presents he asked from Santa!
Samantha really enjoyed all the baby dolls she got this Christmas.She absolutely loved all her Dora, princesses and Abbey.
Ed and I don't really buy each other big presents on Christmas. We pretty much just get whatever we want throughout the year :) But we always manage to pick up some sweet and thoughtful lil gifts.

This year he gave me an apron. Can you believe I've never owned one and had to borrow the kids from time to time? My sweet hubby also gave me a D&G light blue cologne. I am loving it!
I picked up some handkerchief for Ed. He's been wanting some to carry around so he can wipe the kids snot and mess with it :) I also picked up some running tights for him since he's been running a lot outside in this cold winter temps.
All that activities made us hungry and we had our Christmas breakfast.
Christmas dinner was at my in laws with the cousins and family. My mother and father in law absolutely love Christmas and gives the best presents. They are too sweet and generous. The kids pretty much got all the must have Christmas items this season

The boys were granddaddy's helper on distributing the grown up presents.
Samantha's bigger cousins got Nooks from their parents and they were too sweet and shared it with her.
Cousins relaxing and playing some Chute n ladders.
After dinner the kids were invited to the basement. It appears that Santa had left some presents for the kids at Grandmommy and Granddaddy's house.

Samantha has always loved the cozy coupe and it was kinda hard for her to leave.
The kids were so happy to all get big kids bikes from Santa.
We are absolutely blessed and thankful to be surrounded by our wonderful family!

{Noche Buena 2011}

What a blessing it is to have a great family tradition for the kids to experience. Christmas eve was celebrated at our house with a traditional Filipino Noche buena menu with my side of the family. I must admit that there were some emotional moments for me earlier that morning. I missed my Dad dearly. He absolutely love Noche Buena!

Our family of four at Christmas Eve
We attended the Christmas Eve mass service at our church. It was kind of crowded and it made it difficult to listen in to the sermon.
Samantha looked so adorable in this dress.
Sweet lil princess and Mommy.
My handsome boy. My, he has grown so much!
Few more pictures with our family.
Lil sister and big brother having fun!

My sister had worked the night before and was running late for dinner. We went ahead and gave the kids their bathes and put on their jammies while waiting for her.

Santa William was so excited that dinner is ready! Yummy Noche Buena menu---lechon, pansit, shrimps, etc.

In addition to the Filipino fruit salad, we served cake as well to celebrate my brother's birthday.

William and Samantha have been waiting and was so happy that it was time to open presents.My mom got William some MoonDough and he absolutely loved it! He's been wanting one and we tried our best to avoid them for all the mess it makes :) I guess Lola can do no wrong.

Samantha was so excited to open this big present from Tita Susan. Big brother was a great help!

She was so excited to find out that it was a dollhouse!

What a busy Christmas eve! We said goodbye to our elf Timmy and left Santa some cookies.

And we can't forget about Santa's reindeers, so we made sure to leave 9 carrots right next to Santa's plate.

{Gingerbread House 2011}

One of my favorite Christmas tradition is decorating our gingerbread house. This past Sunday, we opened the box kit we got from the store and went to town at building and decorating our gingerbread house. It was a lil bit chaotic at first but we let the kids have at it and boy did they had fun sampling all the candy. It's a ratio of one for the house to one bite for sample.

May I present to you our 2011 gingerbread house!
Two lil hands have been very much enjoying it. Everyday you can tell that gumdrops and icings are slowly missing.

{Christmas Fun}

I've heard it so many times, they say that kids bring a totally different meaning to Christmas. Boy is it true! We definitely bumped up the Christmas decorating and activities. Nothing like seeing your kids enjoying the anticipation and celebration of the birth of baby Jesus!We did a lot of baking...thanks Pinterest for the yummy peppermint pretzel recipe.
We handed out goodies to our neighbors.

They very much enjoyed this yummy sea salted caramel chocolate barks. You must try it! Super easy to make. And our elf Timmy, had his game on this year.

Red paint to get the kids ready for Rudolph.

Having fun with the marker.William asked if Timmy has the power to go anywhere. We said, yes anywhere. He asked, "Even China". Yes William, even China. So the next morning, he woke up and Timmy got him some chopsticks from his trip.

{First Field Trip}

William has been looking forward to his first field trip. What he was most excited about is he gets to ride the school bus! Yes, that was a big deal for him.
Before the big day, we asked him where are his class going for their field trip. He quickly replied that they are going to see older people and sing songs to make them happy :) Gotta love that!
I spoke to his teachers and they said that he had a great time. He was absolutely the entertainer and made a lot of "old" friends. He shook all of their hands and told them stories.

{The Sweetest Gift}

The kids are so blessed to have family friends who showered them with generous Christmas presents. William was opening one of the presents he got when he suddenly stopped and made this sound ---"hmmm" accompanied with a big eye that clearly reflected that he just had one of those light bulb moment. He hopped off the chair and went running to his room and opened his backpack.

He came back to the living room and handed me this present wrapped in a tissue and tied in a red ribbon. "It's for you guys, my teacher helped me with it", he said. I seriously got teary eyed. It was the sweetest gesture ever and he was so excited to give his Mommy and Daddy a present. This ornament was inside the present. We love it and it will always be displayed in all of our Christmas trees from here on.
My lil boy seriously has the best heart and we love it!

{Weekend Christmas Festivities}

Our summer beach crew got together this weekend for a quick Christmas celebration. Clint and Monica drove from Dothan and we are so thankful for that. The kids were so adorable in their Christmas outfits!

Lots of yummy foods and DRINKS were consumed. Priorities!

Our family is so thankful to have everybody over. My kids absolutely look forward to parties at our home.

{Christmas Cheers}

We are blessed to have friends that are family to us. We've been through a lot together---graduations, weddings, pregnancies, etc. We don't see each others as much but we make it a point to spend some time together on special occasions and the holidays....Very typical family behavior huh? :) The ladies!

William was so excited to have everybody over. He was very sure that he was gonna be opening presents....rascal! But I guess, he's starting to pick up that whenever we have Christmas get togethers, he gets presents.

The kids loved all their gifts.

Ed is a child at heart and always gets excited playing toys with kids.

{Wedding Guests}

I love spending time with our kids but I absolutely love having one on one dates with my hubby. We don't get to do it as much so it's really special for both of us. This past weekend my family came to town to babysit the kiddos so that Ed and I can go to a former coworker's wedding. We used to work with B years ago and I am so happy that he had found the woman of his dreams! We were honored to witness this union and be a part of their very intimate guest list. My husband is a super nice guy and people always include him on their guest list....bonus for me coz I get to tag along :)

Congratulations to A and B!