christmas eve

i might be guilty of trying to pack too many things into one day....just maybe. so i admit this christmas eve was no exception. BUT...it turned out to be one of the best busiest days ever! we started off the day with my hs roomies: aunt cyn (and her fab man uncle kyle) and aunt jenny (and her fab hubby nick and sweet baby max). after a great breakfast, and some much needed catching up...we all needed to hurry and head to out to see our families, but not before we captured our annual asms-aunties photo!

next stop aunt kaylynn's and uncle nick's. where we were joined by my nephew, cody, and his beautiful wife, ashely...

and LOTS of presents!

this was really frances' first experience with christmas (she was so tiny last year) and man did she love it! my favorite part though was watching how excited vivian and bauer were FOR her.

and of course, how sweetly and patiently uncle nick opened every single package. (why in heaven's name do they insist on packaging things like they are going to need to survive an atomic bombing?!)

bauer was super thrilled to get a cool knight's cape.

and vivian couldn't wait to get home and start reading with her new tag.

did i mention there were LOTS of presents? ;) but of all the pics...this is still my favorite.

vivian telling uncle nick thanks. every single time i see it...well...i feel it, and it make "my heart smile" as my wise older sister would say.

yep...heart smiling! :)
soon it was time to head home and prepare for our own santa visit.

bauer had the job of deciding what santa needed. cookies, a cutie, and a glass of water. elfie approved. (apparently for the record, santa is "tired of milk, it makes his belly hurt and big.")

next we threw out our reindeer food (thanks, ms. lauren)...

and finished our letter to santa and headed to bed...can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!!