Christmas with the Carlile's

Our Christmas fun always begins on Christmas Eve. We had my sister and her family over for french dip sandwiches and present exchange (it randomly occurred that we had their name and they had ours). They gave us these awesome moustache mugs with hot chocolate and marshmallows! They are great. Then we had the opening of the pajamas. I gave up trying to make my own, I had to face reality that I suck at making pajamas.A little story reading before bed. After Santa had arrived...Tyler could have opened his Tidmouth Sheds and been done. He would have been happy to just have that and nothing else. We had to convince him to try and open everything else.Abraham on the other hand, was an old pro. He was so happy about everything and wanted to show each gift to everyone. It was really fun to watch him.The boys were thrilled that they got their own package of juice that they could drink whenever they wanted. Isn't it the simplest things in life? I love this picture because I think Tyler looks like a rock star.Abraham decided Tyler was moving too slow and needed some help.Then came the removal of toys from boxes and the exploration of new toys. Abraham really wanted this Imaginext space station. He lucked out that "Santa" found it on clearance 6 months ago!It was really fun this year to watch the boys give each other gifts. Abraham was so excited to give Tyler his Thomas books. Isn't it fun to see them just as excited about giving as receiving? My very talented mother made the boys these awesome hooded towels. Tyler couldn't wait to take a bath and try his out!Rex slept through most of the festivities of the morning. When he woke up the other boys were more than happy to open his presents for him. Biter biscuits, yum!This is what my mom made for Ken (she made them for all the men). He LOVED it and wore it around all morning. It's the Christmas mugger!Later in the day Abraham told me he was doing a project and not to look. He was working on it for quite awhile. When he was finally done and I could look, our tree had been redecorated. The picture really doesn't do it justice. He'd put almost any present he possibly could on the tree. The Justice League of America, Thomas Trains, play tools, and Imaginext characters...it was too funny.

We had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed the time we were able to spend as a family. We hope that our friends and family had a happy holidays as well!