Christmas 2011.

I originally wrote this post in December of 2011. And just got lazy to go through/upload the 1000 Christmas pictures I'd taken. Then I lost our Nikon on our Spring Break trip. With the Christmas camera card in it. (Cue the sobbing.) So I have very very few Christmas pictures from Christmas AM. Thankfully I did take a handful on my phone to send to family that morning.

Ok, enough about that.

It's always hard for me to put into words the experience of Christmas morning. It's pretty much just...awesome. The twinkling lights on the tree alone make the whole house feel all warm and nostalgic. And then the little guy's eyes.

TOTALLY MAGICAL.

It was a special Christmas for many reasons. The biggest -- we had FIVE stockings hanging this year. It's funny how just one more stocking looks like so much more. AQ celebrated his first Christmas. And in style. Dining on lamb chops.

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This year we tracked Santa on my phone. There's an app for that. No seriously, there's an app for that. From about 7ish on Christmas Eve and consecutively in ten minutes intervals, with zero break. Mason was so excited. And totally in to the business of finding Santa. He would randomly inform any family member who would listen about the jolly ole dude's whereabouts. We tracked him from Peru to Lima, then all the way to Nashua and Maine. He was getting close -- all the way to Georgia when we tucked them in. At one point Mason excitedly told Max "he had better get to bed....AND QUICK". At this point, I was considering tracking Santa every night.

The boys eagerly put cookies on a plate, wrote Santa a little letter and poured some cold milk. Our house was completely ready to welcome St. Nick. And luckily the presents were already wrapped and hiding in the garage, ready to be shuffled under the tree.

Max through us a curve ball the week before Christmastime. At our last Santa encounter he politely requested "a red bike" and "a patta-pus" (platypus). Neither request has been mentioned.

On any list.
In any conversation between Max and I.
Or Max and Santa.  
Ever.
Well until this very minute. Awesome.

One small problem though...the shopping? Yeah, it was DONE. The gifts? Yup, they were WRAPPED. And Christmas? Umm I thought it was READY.

This mama, as crazy as I may be, was not about to set foot in a toy store, the week of Christmas. And a Target? HA. People get crazy up in Target in December y'all.

Luckily for Max he has loving grandparents. He received all his little heart desired. Thank you, thank you and thank you Amazon. Overnight shipping is a beautiful thing.

They woke up just as excited as they went to bed. Mason ran down the stairs and saw gifts, the twinkling lights on the tree and exclaimed, "HE CAME HE CAME HE CAME".
Indeed baby, he did.

Thankfully Michael was ready with the video camera and caught it all on film.

I really wanted to do a yearly picture of the boys in their jammies under the tree before gifts were shredded open. It was going to be my annual tradition.
Matching jammies.
Babies lined up all snug and sleepy eyed, smiling.

This picture was the weekend before Christmas.

As most of my "plans" go with these guys, this vision also went awry. Mason was too excited to sit for a picture, Max was too tired to smile and Alexander had totally lost his jammie bottoms to a blowout diaper. I tried to dole out stockings while the chaos was contained and sorted out. That picture? Yeah, it never happened. And looking back at last year's it wasn't so "magical" and smiley anyway.

Notice how smiley Max was. The yearly choke hold. (2010)

Their eyes and reactions to nearly every gift was priceless. Four and a half was the perfect age for Christmas!!

Mason has wanted a Wii forever. Santa finally delivered. We spent the day in our PJs, playing Mario Kart, brunching and sipping mimosas. It was total bliss.

I love the holidays. The feeling of Christmas morning can't be replaced or beat by any other minute. Ours was lovely.