no bake xmas

 Our tradition every year is to take a picture at the top of the stairs before they go down and see their gifts.  Precious Caleb didn't want to cooperate with this tradition this year, so there you have it!

 Caleb perked up rather quickly when he started looking in his stocking!  He got Woody, Buzz and Alien Legos, which are already missing somewhere in the house right now!  He loves Legos, but he also loves carrying them around the house with him!

Luke has had quite a year.  I have had to take him off all dyes in food, drastically cut down his sugar intake and he has had to go to the eye doctor many, many times.  In this picture, he is getting excited about the lollipops that have no dyes and no sugar.  They are his favorite, and something that has made both our lives a lot easier!  When other kids are having something sugary, he can have this instead!

 Gracie is already wearing size 6 womens' shoes!  She was excited to get a blue pair of converse like mine.  Hers are much nicer than my old ones!

 Luke has been wanting Cars 2 for a while, so he was thrilled to finally have it!  Caleb was excited to get Lion King on DVD so that he could watch it in the car on the way to Cayucos.

 Caleb's favorite game is Zingo, so I was glad to find a number version of the game for him.  He can't wait for Grammy to come over and play it with him!

 Every year I make a calendar for Diana and one for Bill to take to work.  I make a big point of not letting him see me work on it so that all the pictures are a fun surprise for him to see.

 I can't go through xmas morning without a fire.  It happened to be 50 outside for a few minutes, so it felt nice at first.  By 10, it was too warm and turned out to be a typical 65 degree xmas!

 I found a small violin that plays music, because I thought the kids would like pretending that it was Pa's fiddle, or possibly might spark someone's interest in learning how to play!?  We will see!

 Dylan's xmas and birthday present was an Ipod touch. He has been wanting one for over two years, and Bill and I finally thought he was ready for the responsibility.  So far, so good.

 Gracie is so easy to buy things for.  She is happy to receive anything she gets and is always so grateful and appreciative. 

 Luke wants to learn how to play the guitar, but in the meantime I got him a play guitar to practice on!  He has agreed to keep taking piano lessons for a little longer before switching to guitar.

 Just like most typical xmas mornings in Southern California, we usually spend the afternoon playing in the warm sun outside!  Luke loves to play "tennis" (a game that he, Dylan, and Gracie made up to play in our driveway).  They made up rules and a point system which actually is a pretty fun game to play.

 Here are all the cousins gathered together swapping presents.  I love Delaney and Madison in this picture.  They crack me up!

Here Bill is sharing the pictures from xmas eve that he took on his Ipad.  I love when these guys get together and start laughing. 

Since my refrigerator was broken and we were leaving for Cayucos in two days, we decided to wait and order a new one when we got back.  That meant a "no bake" xmas for us!  We usually have hot cocoa and homemade cinnamon rolls on xmas morning.  This year xmas fell on a Sunday, so we pretended that Saturday was xmas morning and had breakfast at Brandon's instead.  The kids were able to order cinnamon roll french toast which they loved and I didn't have to cook or clean the kitchen!  Even though I missed cooking and baking this holiday season, perhaps it was the nice break I needed!