Merry Christmas!

Yesterday we pretty much just hung out and relaxed. The boys got to spend some good quality time with Mark's parents and we just acclimated to being in a different place.

This morning, Mark's parents had laid all of the presents out under the Christmas tree. The boys never even noticed. They walked by them several times and never even saw them--and I'm talking about some big packages. We all got a big kick out of it. We went to Christmas mass and then came home and opened presents with all of Mark's immediate family. It went pretty well all things considered, but due to the amount of stimulation Mark and I opted to wait to give the boys our gifts.

The boys had a great time playing with their aunts, uncle, grandparents, and great-grandma all day!

At bedtime, we got the boys all dressed and ready for bed and then gave them our presents. They each got three presents--and they were most excited about their new watches. Dima's class has been learning to tell time and we get asked the time several times a day, so Mark had the great idea to get them watches. It was truly an inspired idea as the watches were the first thing they asked for the next morning when they woke up. :) Doing our presents at night, when everything was quieter, also allowed us to talk again about the meaning of Christmas and why we give presents. We kept it pretty simple so that hopefully the big part--Jesus' birthday--would stick.

All in all, I think it was a great, memorable Christmas! Merry Christmas to you and yours!