Christmas at the Ranch

Okay.  Finally.  Here's the end of Christmas. :)  We went to the vM Ranch and spent a couple of nights.  Here are the pictures to prove it.

White Tailed Deer

Elk crossing the road as Erick and I were out and about.  Very cool.  There were three of them and they just stopped and looked at us.

Elk

A and B watching a movie and about to pass out.

Aren't we just adorable and dorky?

Another Christmas Celebration!

Here are pictures from Christmas in Marion.  It was a full house with lots of conversation, laughter from the Littles and yummy mexican food!

Christmas at Home!

Even though we always have four celebrations elsewhere, we always have Christmas morning at home with our own little family.  It was fun to see both kids so excited in the morning!

Excited about her Dorothy Barbie!

Yes, it's seven in the morning and B is eating the cookie that Santa left on his plate.

Christmas Eve and Celebration #2

This year, Ava was in the Christmas Eve service at church for the first time.  She was an angel and loved the idea of being "on stage" but when it came to actually doing it, she was quite nervous.  Well, and EXHAUSTED.  It was fun to see her up there! 

After church, we had our Christmas celebration with Mimi at our house.  For dinner we had ribs, green bean casserole and mashed potatoes!  Yum!  The kids tore open their gifts from Mimi, Brecken rode on his new train and Ava and Mimi made red velvet cupcakes with Ava's new Easy Bake Oven.  Then we made cookies and set them out for Santa--with milk of course!  After Mimi went home, the four of us crawled into Ava's bed, where Erick read The Night Before Christmas.  He has read it each year on Christmas Eve since Ava was born.  Love it!

After putting the kiddos to bed, Erick and I began wrapping and unpackaging like crazy.  You see, some gifts are wrapped, but the gifts that Santa leaves are always out of the box, unwrapped and ready for someone to play with them. 

Then we did our tradition thing of cuddling and watching Love Actually. :)