Christmas Eve and we all felt the desire for a fresh pedicure....can you say, new Christmas tradition in our home?!  The story goes like this....earlier in the week we had dinner with our good friends who announced that pedicures were AWESOME for boys too.  Then they mentioned the massage chair and the boys were all about giving it a try....

 and so we went....and we left feeling relaxed and new!  The boys immediately claimed that this may need to be a birthday AND Christmas event fearing that waiting an entire year may be too long! 

 The traditions continued....we ventured out in our sandals and flip flops, into the pouring down rain in the less than chilly temperatures and took on Panera for lunch followed by a dash through Target.

 We got home just in the nick of time to change quickly, take a fast photo and then onto our Christmas Eve service....

 and then we were home awaiting our guests to join us for dinner which is always such fun.....the children played, the adults chatted and before we knew it, the night was coming to an end....with our friends, we bid one another a Merry Christmas and the children and I curled up to read Twas The Night Before Christmas.....

 followed by displaying carrots and reindeer food for the reindeer....then with all four children nestled in bed, the wait began.  And before long, we had one who was just to excited to sleep.  Always the same one, every single year. Eventually, all eight eyes were closed.  

 Four hours later, this was the scene on the stairs....four children, all so excited yet their eyes were not adjusted....we took several pictures and they all look just.like.this. 

 And this was pretty much Pryce's reaction to any and everything that he faced on Christmas Day - pure joy, excitement, lots of "Yes! Thank you!"

 And our sweet little girl Maddox....this year she was so in awe of Christmas....she loved Santa, could not wait to open her gifts, sang Christmas songs until her little voice could sing no more and she just glowed with joy!  

 MK was all into performing with her new equipment....I told Ryan she reminded me of Phoebe from Friends - she just made up songs and sang them all.day.long.  They did not make a bit of sense but that seemed to be just a minor detail in her book.  On a Christmas Eve note, her pedicure was the first one she has had since her toe incident almost five months ago.  She did seem a bit hesitant but was so pleased when I told her that she DOES indeed have a nail, albeit a funky little nail, but a nail nonetheless and it looked so pretty once it was painted an shaped up a bit.

 P reading comfortably in his new chair, in new pjs with a new necklace....this was just a small snapshot of what his day looked like....he bounced from one present to another assembling and playing and occasionally a window of book time entered in but not for too long before he was up and bouncing around again....I hope he always has this zest for life!

 And for the most part, this was C on Christmas.  He was loving his new headphones, and often did not hear a word said to him until we had to say it a second time after waving him down to get his attention....

 our day was spent much like above - in our pjs, opening gifts, just enjoying our time together.  

And then it ended just like this....lights were out early!

Merry Christmas!