Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas, Allison and Aaron! 

Love these expressions! They were SO ready to come down those stairs!

Before checking out what Santa brought, she had to first make sure that he came. She's looking for proof in the yard- and she found it. Evidence a sleigh had landed AND some reindeer hoof marks. Cool! 

Santa brought them games to play on the Wii that we've had forever but never really used. Aaron got Wipeout...

and Allison got Just Dance… which as of today (12/27) she's used for approximately 6 hours! :)

Santa brought Aaron a new blow up globe. I bet he'll keep this one far away from Zoey! :)

Our boy was in need of winter pajamas- big time! I found someone who is selling pajamas to raise funds for an adoption, so I ordered a couple of pairs. They are ADORABLE!! 

I just love this scene. My parents have been with us almost every Christmas morning since the kids were born. They arrived just as the kids were starting to open their gifts from us. Perfect timing! 

Aaron gave me a beautiful globe ornament. Allison gave me 2 scarves to go with my new coat. :) 

Aaron gave Allison a cool magnet board. She gave him a huge assortment of letter stickers.

This got opened and played immediately! 

I opened my big gift from Dad…..

Another year of my blog… put into a book. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! Now I have 3 years in print! 

Papaw quizzes Aaron on some geography! 

I think we counted TEN new books for Christmas.   

Yes, we're feeding his obsession. :) Loved this picture of the states! 

Allison does not consider clothes a "gift". I think this will change someday. :) However, she's been asking for some animal print clothing, so she was happy to receive a couple of new shirts. 

What's just as fun as new books? A very generous gift from Grandma Judie to do some shopping at Barnes and Noble. 

Aaron checks out a globe ornament I bought for HIM! :)

The kids made us precious gifts at school. 

And excerpt out of Aaron's book! So darling! 

Dad opened some fun gifts too- I just didn't get as many pictures of him. Here he is opening a new Husker shirt! 

Later in the day we headed over to Uncle Jeff and Aunt Sheila's house for a wonderful late lunch. The kids got to decorate some sugar cookies- yum!

The Santas, ready to hand out some gifts! 

They both received a ton of gifts and loved them all. 

The next day I immediately began putting things away. Sad. :( 

And Aaron tried on some of his new jammies. So cute! 

What a sad little picture. Dad took down the trees today, and these are just a few presents for the cousins, when we see them to celebrate next week. :) 

Preparing for Christmas

Because I just downloaded over 400 pictures, I thought I'd better divide the posts into "preparing for" and "Christmas". :) It was a very merry Christmas at the Loudenback house. The kids are at SUCH a fun age for all the excitement!

Our first Christmas gift arrived on the 17th, when we accepted an offer on our house. YAHOO!! It was on the market for 2 months, and we had 40 showings. Crazy 2 months! We will be headed back to St. Louis on the 20th of January!

As we were looking around for fun things to do before Christmas, we learned that Scott's sister Jenny would be performing in a local theater production of Christmas Belles. This would be the first live theater performance for the kids, besides things like ice skating shows and Mickey Mouse Live. :) They enjoyed it very much! It was a darling show, and it was fun to see Aunt Jenny on stage! 

The kids presented Aunt Jenny with some flowers after the show, and she gave them a tour backstage. What a fun day! 

I was amazed at how quickly the house could turn ugly once we knew there wouldn't be any more showings. Oh my! 

The kids enthusiastically helped out to get things back in order. Ha! 

Allison received a present in the mail from her best buddy, Katie. She was so excited!

Katie had made her a couple of darling clay creations. :)

We were going to Scott's brother's house for Christmas day dinner, and I decided to make a family recipe- one that Scott's dad really enjoyed. After getting a very "a bit of this and a lot of that" kind of recipe from Grandma Sonja, I attempted to make some yummy homemade mac and cheese. After a bit of adapting, it turned out great! :) 

We invited my parents over for Christmas Eve chili and a little bit of gift opening. We put cheese and Fritos on our chili. You?

The kids made our traditional b-day cake for Jesus. Sadly, we forgot to sing to him, but hopefully it was the thought that counts. 

Aaron LOVES using the sprinkles!

A work of art, don't you think? 

Mom and Dad presented Scott and the kids with a fun gift. It's a pillow where you can record messages inside. They thought it would be great for Scott to record messages to the kids since we were spending so much time apart. When they bought it, they didn't know we'd sold the house and would be together soon. :) It'll still be used often, as he'll always be a traveling daddy! 

One of my favorite traditions from childhood- opening new pajamas on Christmas Eve. 

She looks so excited. It's not because she loves pajamas… just that she really wanted to open a present- any present! :)

So did he! 

So stinkin' cute! 

And oh so silly! 

Because we bought them too much this year (this is becoming a theme!), we let them open one "regular" present on Christmas Eve. Allison received a 2nd Rainbow Loom. Evidently there are things to make that require 2 looms. Of course there are! 

Aaron received a very cool personal plaque made out of license plates!! :) 

Time to make the reindeer food. Allison always comes up with a special recipe she thinks they'll enjoy!

Going outside in the FREEZING weather (we were so thankful to have a white Christmas) to give the reindeer their food.

And back inside to leave Santa some cookies and milk. Stay tuned for a look at Christmas day. For now, it's back to packing up everything Christmas so I can start packing up everything normal. Usually I leave Christmas decorations up for a week or so… not this year. Thankfully, I decorated before Thanksgiving, so we've enjoyed them a LOT!