Merry Christmas

I have been waiting for Christmas. Waiting to see John open his presents. Waiting to have a little bit of joy. You don't know how much I've been waiting to have joy.

I made Monkey Bread and Overnight Sausage Casserole, both for the first time this year. Monkey Bread, not a big fan. It's okay, nothing to write home about. But the Overnight Sausage Casserole? Awesome. Will be definitely making this dish over and over again.

Breakfast time. I'm not exactly sure what he's doing. Being his normal adorable self. What a poser.

We bought a new tree this year. Prelit. Highly recommend this.
The only problems?

1. This tree is taller than our old one so I didn't have enough garland to reach to top (granted I could have gone to the store and bought more but well, I'm lazy)


2. The lights are only white.


3. The lights don't do anything. I'd like it if they flashed or something.

But all in all, love the new tree. But it does look like if we turned on the ceiling fan, the angel would totally be decapitated.

And all those gifts under the tree? 99% of them are John's.

He totally made a beeline for the biggest gift. Oh, and we wrapped almost all of them in Christmas "Cars" wrapping paper. He caught onto to the concept of unwrapping quite fast. Not that he was fast at unwrapping them but he understood the concept of opening them.

Notice the TINY piece of wrapping paper in his hand. That's how it started. It was a long process.

And don't forget about the Rye-guy. He helped with the presents too.

My sister got John this Lightning McQueen car that moves. You shake the car and it revs the engine and says a catch phrase and then moves. The more you shake the car, the more it revs and moves. John doesn't like it so much. He likes watching it move but not so much the shaking or the reving.

I made everyone wear their hat and/or antlers. Yes, I am one of those people.
Dawna in her hat, John being a future hockey star.

Dad & John opening gifts.

Riley: I can't friggin belive the things they make me do. Help me.

Cindy in her hat. And Christmas jammies.

All those new toys and he's playing in the bag.

Outstanding parenting technique.

It's almost embarrassing to see how much we have. There's so much guilt involved with all the abundance. I'm wondering if it's right to focus so much on the commercialism of Christmas rather than the spirtualism and true meaning of Christmas. I think perhaps, for future birthdays and Christmas we will think about giving back as well.