Christmas At Home - 2011!!!!

Shawn and I started last year making sure we were home Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with our little family. I know the kids won't remember (other than pictures) right now, but it was something we wanted to get started as a tradition of ours. We have such wonderful extended families on both sides, so it is harder than you'd think to make it a point to be at our own home!

Christmas morning Shawn and I woke up at 6 am in order to get everything ready for the big day ahead. It really wasn't that bad...we were both pretty excited to share Christmas with our sweet little family.

When I walked downstairs and saw that Shawn had turned the Christmas tree lights on I wanted to try to capture the feeling on camera....I know I didn't do it justice, but it was just so beautiful and peaceful and perfect.

I noticed a small pile of packages under the tree that were different from all the others and I realized that Shawn had taken it upon himself to pick out one gift for each person in our family. He told me he wanted to start the tradition of a special gift from Daddy every year....well obviously I totally lost it and cried at his sweetness. Seriously?!?! My kids have a wonderful father. And I, a wonderful hubby!

This picture makes me happy because you can see our little Advent ornament tree we decorated in the kids' playroom right off the living room. It was such an amazing experience to participate in Truth in the Tinsel and I can't wait to do it again next year!

The night before Christmas I set up our pancake making area...so as soon as we were up and going, Shawn started making our traditional pancake breakfast.

Oooohhhhh....looks like Santa left the Barry family some K-Cups....thank goodness 'cause we were out!

Of course it wasn't long before little Mister was up. As a side note, I hope he starts learning to like his sleep a little more....at least in this house. ;)

Then it was time for us to wake up Lolo....she wasn't too excited at first because she is a lady that knows how to love her sleep (thank goodness!!!!) but as soon as she realized it was Christmas she was ready to go.

And this picture right here?!?! It totally melts my heart.

In her true shy-girl form, Lauren was super hesitant about the presents under the tree...

So we decided to wake up a little more and head to the kitchen for our yummy breakfast.

We always make our pancakes into a big cake with candles to celebrate Jesus' birthday on Christmas morning. We sang Happy Birthday, Jesus and talked about how we were celebrating Jesus coming to earth as a little baby.

Digging in! My loves....

After breakfast Lauren was finally ready to get to those presents. I think this is possibly my all time favorite picture of my two loves together.

Easton was dying to get into the presents....or the tree...or the plug-in....or whatever else he was not supposed to get into.

Lauren got an awesome new beanbag (that has a removable and washable cover...yippee!!!) and she LOVED it!

Also, a big hit....the $2 microphone from Target.

She got a new Bible and was "reading" it to us. I love that she loves to pretend to read and I LOVE that she gets so excited about new Bible books.

Daddy's gift to all of us were new Mizzou duds!!! Both kids got jerseys and I got a new long sleeved tee.

I got a Jawbone....seriously best gift ever!!! I LOVE having music playing in the house at all times and this is a wireless blue-tooth speaker. So, I just turn Pandora on my phone and it plays it. My phone can be all the way across the house and it will still play. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE IT!

Shawn got binoculars for all that hunting he's been doing.

And I got a Lisa Leonard necklace!!!! I've been secretly (and not so secretly) wanting one for a while now and I absolutely adore it. It has a sweet little mason jar filled with hearts, a pearl bead, a rectangular charm with Easton's name on it, and a circle charm with Lauren's name. It is so precious to me.

Wow, right!?!? It was quite the mess....but such a fun and memorable morning. :)

After playing with our new toys for a while and packing up our stuff to head to Nammy and Big Papa's, we all got ready for church. It was such a blessing for us to be in church on Christmas morning. It was such a rich service and my heart was just filled anew with gratitude for what Christ did for us by coming to earth as a baby, living life as a sinless man, and dying an ugly and horrific death to save me....to save us.