December 25 = Christmas!

Malia slept through Christmas Eve night like a champ!  I woke up at 7:00 and was the only one awake so I read the Christmas story in Luke like I do every Christmas while I pumped of course and then made my new favorite breakfast- an English muffin with Nutella and Matthew, sleeping on a mattress in the living room, didn't hear me cleaning out the dishwasher or the toaster go off.  Zachary woke up and fed Malia and came out to join me which signaled to me it was time to get everyone up!  So I turned on Pandora and turned it way up and sure enough, everyone got up around 8:00.  We opened presents- Liam got his annual Hess truck from uncle Matt, the traditional Dr. Seuss book from my parents, and some really cool toys that I had put on Pinterest that I thought would be good for his development.  He also got some cool TMNT clothes.  Malia got some really cool toys- one being an colorful octopus that plays peekaboo- and lots of adorable clothes.  I got a beautiful ruby necklace because that's Malia's birthstone, really awesome Sanuk yoga mat flip flops, two cardigans and a lot of leftover containers!  And who can forget the chocolate covered cherries?!  Zachary got a Duke shirt and a gift card to Dick's sporting goods.

After the presents were all opened- we headed to IHOP which is a tradition Zachary and I started a few years ago- we've gone three of our five Christmases together now.  Liam kept his elf pajamas on from the night before and spread lots of Christmas cheer to the waiters and waitresses having to work on Christmas morning.  When we got home it was time to start preparing more food even though we were pretty full at the moment.  Growing up, we always spent Christmas Eve with my dad's side of the family and Christmas day with my mom's side.  My grandma and aunts would make snacks for us the "nosh" on throughout the day.  So keeping with that we made some cheese dip, sausage balls, a pork tenderloin and lots of baked goods my mom and brother had made the week before.

We had my dad's favorite Christmas movie, A Christmas Story on in the background as well as lots of NBA action and then tuned in to watch Zachary's school, George Washington, win a basketball game that night.

Unfortunately I don't have many pictures because we had my parents' video camera rolling the whole time so we did preserve memories but none I can share here!

Posting that first picture reminded me of another Christmas soon to be tradition that we started this year- Zachary wore an "ugly sweater" and plans to wear the same one every Christmas- should be interesting!