It's the Best Time of the Year

We started a new Christmas tradition of making ornaments this year. Here's Eli decorating our creations:

Hooray!

I wanted to make Carson shoes for one of his presents. Once I got started, I couldn't stop! They were so fun to make and turned out super adorable!

Here's Eli the night before Christmas in his new Christmas jammies. Such a cutie.

Being excited and tired. We spent the evening at my parents' house for a Christmas Eve family party and didn't get back until late. We forced Eli to stay up a little bit later so we could relish in the Christmas Eve spirit.

Eli was asleep in no time. Then Santa showed up! This was what greeted Carson Christmas morning.

And here's Eli's stocking.

The calm before the storm.

Eli didn't wake up until 8:30. Jeff and I were antsy all morning as we wandered around the house waiting for him to emerge.

When he did finally emerge, he was still really tired and didn't give us much of a reaction.

He only played with toys after we forced them upon him.

Baby's first Christmas!

Since Eli slept in so late, I had enough time to whip up some Christmas tree waffles for breakfast.

Eli opted for candy instead.

Cute Christmas boys.

He did eat the bacon. And then he choked on the bacon. Scary choke. Throw up noises and everything. Don't worry. I saved his life.

It was the Christmas of near-death experiences this year. Shortly after Eli's battle with the bacon, I had the boys jump in the bath so they'd be all handsome for the rest of our Christmas at my parents' house. While Carson was in the bath, he bonked his head against the side of the tub. It didn't even look like he hit his head very hard.

He cried. I thought he was being dramatic because he tends to be dramatic. Then I looked at his eye and saw what looked like blood coming out from the inside of his eye. I screamed. Whisked Carson out of the tub. Jeff was in the shower so I banged on the door to report the injury.

Jeff even started semi-freaking out as blood was now running down Carson's face and we couldn't quite tell where it was coming from. I had visions of Christmas morning being spent at the E.R.

Jeff determined the blood was not coming from inside his eye, but rather from his eyelid and we both gave a sigh of relief. The gash was pretty bad, but after applying a little pressure to it the bleeding stopped and all was well again.

After our morning traumas, we headed over to my parents' house where they had a prime rib raring to go.

Not to mention all the presents under the tree waiting patiently to be opened.

We were happy to have Abe, Klarissa and Newland join us for this year's festivities.

Family Christmas picture. If you can't tell by this picture, Eli was a crab all morning. Shouldn't have kept him up so late the night before dang it.

Siblings minus one. The distant "Y" football ornament on the tree is a good stand-in for the absent sibling though.

Carson opening his first present.

Eli opening an airplane set.

Newland opening his baby shoes.

Oven mitts I made for my mom. Kind of the grown up version of the darling little baby shoes.

Jeff got me a super cute map of the United States. I've been dying to have one so that I can mark where all my curtains have gone. I have a goal to have Sarah Excell Curtains in every state of the U.S. Now I can see how I'm doing on that goal!

Brooke cuddled with her new scooter most of the morning.

I gave Jeff an original version of the Book of Mormon.

After presents, my grandparents showed up. They always like an updated family picture for their wall of fame.

Christmas lunch/dinner. Totally yummy.

We had so much fun with everybody! Merry Christmas to all!