Christmas Morning

"Hey, Dad! DAD! Get up!"

It's Christmas morning! Brayden pounced on us early this morning to get us up. Craig did his own pouncing back. It was a wonderful way to wake up on Christmas with everyone laughing and excited that the day has finally come. 

Once I put our traditional breakfast casserole in the oven, we all met in the front room. Brayden was so excited to see that Santa ate the cookies and milk that he set out for him the night before, especially when he noticed all the extra presents around the tree. 

First things first. We all got to check out the fun treats waiting for us in our stockings.

Then it was Brayden's job to grab the gifts from under the tree and pass them out to their owners. He did awesome. He got so excited with each gift, even when it wasn't for him. He couldn't wait to see what was inside.

Among Brayden's favorites was this "Angry Birds" beanbag toss.

Santa left a new 46" HDTV next to the tree for Craig.

But I personally think that I got the best gift this morning. Craig surprised me with a certificate proving that I am now a Disney stockholder. How cool is that! I own a piece of Disney and I have something beautiful to hang on my wall proving it. I love it!

Now that everything was opened, we had quite a mess in the front room for Brayden to play in.

The last thing to do was wait for our breakfast to be ready. In the meantime, Craig and Brayden played with the new marble run. This was a wonderful morning! I love my little family so much! Merry Christmas, everyone.

Shane Christmas Party

It's finally Christmas Eve! The Shane's Christmas Party was this afternoon. It was so great to get together with family during the day, but still have all evening to be at home prepping for Santa. Jan made us a delicious lunch and once the tables were cleared away it was time to open presents.

This is always Brayden's favorite part. We'll have a lot of fun with his new toys, especially the Optimus Prime Lego set.

I loved watching Bailey play with the new Disney Princess dresses that I gave her.

Erika found a ball that she pushed up her shirt so she could look like me. If only I could get mine out as easy as she got her's out. Anyway, we had a blast and I can't wait for tomorrow morning!

Homemade Gift Exchange

A few weeks ago, Tori approached me with an amazing gift idea for our hubbies. They were simple enough crafts, but I knew that Craig would love it. Tori was so sweet and pretty much took care of everything. By the time I got to her house to put it all together the boys had heard that we were making something for them. Now they were going to make something for us, too.

Today we got together to exchange the gifts. First, we opened the guys' gifts. They were cute glass jars that were filled with my favorite brownie mix. (The thing is, I knew I was missing one from the cupboard, but Craig convinced me that I was merely losing my mind. Thanks, Sweetie.) The best part were the decorations they put around the jar. My favorite was the Mickey Mouse snowflake on the top. I love it!

Now it was their turn. We had been talking this up for weeks, so I had my fingers crossed that they would actually like it and not just roll their eyes at us.

Success! They loved it. You'd have to play the zombie game on Call of Duty: Black Ops to really understand how cool it is to get your own bottles of Double Tap Root Beer, Quick Revive, Speed Cola, and Juggernog Soda. I have a feeling these are going up on the mantel. Merry Christmas, guys! Time to play zombies.

Redecorating the Tree

So, this is kind of a funny story...

This is what our tree looked like yesterday morning. Because we spent so much money on gifts this year (notice the huge boxes) we decided to use our fake tree rather than buying a real tree. I know that Craig absolutely loves real Christmas trees, but he convinced me it was okay to focus our funds elsewhere. "We can always get a real tree next year." Well, the universe had different plans.

Craig's bowling league had their White Elephant/$5 gift exchange last night. The way it works is everyone brings a gift and places it on the back table. Once you bowl your first strike, you can go pick out a gift to take home. One of our friends, Travis, runs the Christmas Tree lot on 90th south and 13th west, so he brought in a tree for his exchange. Craig was so excited! He wanted that tree. He convinced his team to help him out. They agreed and Gary was the first person to get a strike, so he grabbed the tree for Craig and he picked his own gift once Craig bowled his strike.

Now the only problem was getting it home. Our little Dodge Neon isn't exactly roomy, especially with Brayden in the backseat, but we made it work. Can you see Brayden? (By the way, this also goes to show how tiny this tree was. It fit in our backseat!)

Well, we got it home. While I put Brayden to bed, Craig ran over to Harmon's to buy some Sprite for the tree. Then we both got to work taking the fake tree down and putting our new tree up. I know it's only a week before Christmas, but the look on Craig's face made it totally worth it.

All day today, Brayden has been adding his own touch to the tree. I think the clumped clusters of ornaments adds personality and I love it! I always underestimate what a real tree does to spruce up the holidays for both of my boys. I'm so glad we didn't miss out on that this year.

Capizzi Christmas Party

The annual Capizzi Family Christmas Party took place today. I love getting together with the family to visit and open gifts. Everyone is so happy at Christmas. I love it!

Grandma and Grandpa Capizzi had fun gifts for all of the kids to open.

There was even something special for Ella. I can't wait to dress her up in this!

Brayden was so excited to get "Hungry, Hungry Hippos" from his grandparents that he wanted to open it right away. Erika, Emma, and Dominik were more than willing to play with him.

Thanks, Phil and Sharon! Merry Christmas! (And I need their Disney Santa hats for next year...)

"Poker Face"

Brayden and I met up with my family this evening after they got home from the airport. They spent the last week picking up Kira from BCT/boot camp at Fort Sill, OK. After a yummy pizza dinner, we all went downstairs to play with Kira and Travis' Xbox Kinect. It was a lot of fun and I finally figured out from where Brayden got his fist pumping dance move...

Enjoy the video!

Friends' Gift Exchange

Rather than our customary "Big Bang Theory" night, our friends got together today for a Christmas Party/Gift Exchange at Jen's place. Deana got there early, so her and Jen were playing Mario. Brayden didn't even bother to take off his coat before he joined them. He loves Mario!

Once we were able to drag him away from the TV, we started with the exchange. Craig got an awesome hooded blanket from Jen. This "Angry Bird" suites him perfectly. 

Deana gave me a wonderful Mickey Mouse clock! I absolutely love it. I can't wait to take it home and put it up. This is too cool to worry about preserving in the box.

Jen gave Brayden a cute stuffed toy. Brayden calls him Angry Yellow. He had to work to keep it away from the dogs, Teeko and Lucky.

Deana's gift to Brayden was extra thoughtful. It is a personalized "Toy Story III" book. It has his name, the names of his friends, and his address embedded into the story.

We finished off the night with Jen reading Brayden's new story to all of us. It is so cute! I love Christmas. I'm so excited to have a little girl join us next year with the festivities.