Merry Christmas!

While I am slightly ashamed about our blatant consumerism during this recession, I justify it by reminding myself that we did also give significant donations to various people in need and food shelters, so maybe we aren't totally evil? Anyway, we love giving gifts! So we had a great Christmas morning.

We don't have any type of mantle so my wonderful friends at Domestic Graffiti crafted this sign for me to hang our stockings. My grandma made my stocking when I was born, and Madeline's grandma made her stocking when she was born. I made Joe's so he could have a matching one with us.

This pretty much wraps up Madeline's favorite surprise from Santa.

When we convinced her to open more presents, she had fun discovering all the other goodies under the tree.

A bag full of princess stuff...

A new baby with 3 outfits (and a crib for her to sleep in)...A Fancy Nancy Dress-Up Game from Grandma...And a Princess Tent (or "house" as she calls it) for her room. This was another favorite.What's this present wrapped in a huge Santa bag?......Oh! It's actually a very compact (but very heavy) hand weight set that I didn't want him to guess. It worked!

Fortunately for me, I was wielding the camera all morning, so there are virtually no shots of me in my just-woke-up-haven't-brushed-my-hair-or-teeth look. Here I am "oooo-ing" over my belgian waffle maker from Joe.

Clearly after we got done opening presents, we had to have waffles for breakfast! They were super yummy (that's for you, Grace). Then we went to Christmas dinner over at the Crowther's, who live just a few blocks from us. Another family from our Christmas Eve dinner was there, and that meal was super yummy too. Thanks for having us over Grace, we had a great time!