A Very Merry Christmas

It's only two days since Christmas...not too bad for posting the excitement of the day, since we went to San Diego Zoo yesterday.  We did other fun family stuff before Christmas too that I still have to post, quick before it becomes January!

Here are the kids on Christmas morning BEFORE!

And here are the kids AFTER opening a gift...it was more of the same excitement all morning long.  In this picture, Natalie loves her Pillow Pet (a giraffe...she says, "I love my Pillow Pet!" a lot), Dominik is sitting on his new cement mixer, Lukas is looking through his periscope, and Konrad is riding his scooter.

Konrad is jumping up and down because he got some Cars 2 pajamas.

Tom received a sweater and a hoodie (which he's wearing) AND a generator...we are ready for the next power outage, either from earthquake or power grid overload.  Also in this pic, Dominik finally has a helmet that fits, that's also for a boy!  In the background, Natalie is trying to put on a belt Tom received.

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Konrad is excited about his army men set, complete with vehicles.  There has already been a lot of dirt play in the backyard by Konrad and Lukas with this toy.

Natalie loves the princess wand she received from her aide.

And her new Belle doll.  We're not sure if this is actually a Rapunzel or a Belle doll, but we're calling it Belle (Beauty and the Beast is Natalie's new favorite movie...although she definitely knows more lines from Toy Story 2).

Lukas is excited by his new Super Mario Bros. for Wii. Konrad hasn't played it at Aunt Patrice's home like Lukas has, so he has NO IDEA how much fun he's in for.

And all that fun before breakfast!  Then it was time for church, lunch, lots of playing with new toys, saying hi to a neighbor's new dog (I know our kids would love that gift, but we're not quite ready for it) and preparing for a special Christmas dinner.  Earlier this month I spotted a holiday recipe guide that had the recipe for perfect chocolate eclairs.  Since this is Tom's favorite dessert, I justified buying the magazine just for that recipe...and it has a lot of other cool holiday recipes too!  I do think this recipe is a slight improvement over the previous recipe I used...and it's nice to know I'm using the very best recipe ever...I don't have to keep looking for a better recipe now.  What's with the one without the icing?  That's Konrad's...it also doesn't have the vanilla creme filling, since he can't handle anything "creamy".

We hope you also had a very Merry Christmas!  Spending time with family and church friends is our favorite part of celebrating our Savior's birth, but it's great to see the kids have so much fun too.  We were so pleased that Lukas' prayer that night included spontaneously thanking God for the gift of His Son.