Christmas 2011

The Leptuch's had a great Christmas this year.

My favorite part was Ava saying "This is the best thing I have ever seen" when she was opening her gifts.

Christmas came and went so fast.

On Christmas Eve, we all dressed up and went to my step brother Brian's house. He does a pasta and seafood dinner. Mike went to church with my mom and grandparents and met up with us there later. Because of a "freak" snow storm, Santa has to drop presents and dash! We used to have my brother-in-law dress up as Santa, but the kids were getting older and would probably figure it out.
Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. I just got one of Ava after I got her all dressed up as she was eating jelly beans from her papa Ron.

A DeMario family tradition that I wanted to pass down was opening one present on Christmas Eve. Since Ava would be tired when we got home, we gave her one Christmas Eve morning for her to play with all day, and that is exactly what she did. She got a remote control puppy that you can make walk and bark. She named it Meesha.

Here she is opening it.

Taking a nap with it and Daddy.

And of course putting stickers all over it!

I set low expectations for Christmas morning.I get so excited and want everything to be perfect, but with kids you can never tell what kind of mood they will be in. So I told myself ahead of time if Ava is cranky or wakes up early, that it is ok. I was pleasantly surprised. Ava slept through the night and woke up in a good mood. I mean, what kid wouldn't be excited when you go in their room and tell them that Santa came.

Noah on the other hand, decided that he was going to wake up at 5am and start crying at 5:30 am. He NEVER does that. I mean, he wakes early, but he usually talks until we get him at 6. So we brought him in our bed and let him crawling happily around until Ava woke up at 6am.

Santa was good to the kids this year as was the family. I wish that I would have gotten a picture of all the mess, but I didn't.

Ava got a Dollhouse and LOVED it. Here are some pictures from our day. Get ready for picture overload.

Ava walking out into the living room with her bed head.

Ava seeing her dollhouse for the first time.

Noah opening his first present of the morning.

Ava playing with her dollhouse and Noah eyeing it all!

I love this picture, Ava is playing with Noah's toy and Noah is playing with Ava's toy!

Ava playing with Noah's toys again. A construction helmet and truck.

Ava opening her doctor kit.

Checking Bobo's vitals

Her new laptop

Noah's truck

A family picture

 We had a great morning and we were able to extend it all morning long. We let Ava open a couple of gifts first thing. She mostly opened some of the rooms for her dollhouse. Then she played with her stickers while we waited for Grammy and Papa Dee to come over. I got the ham in the oven and then we opened some more presents. At that point Ava did get a taste for the fun of opening gifts and kept wanting to open them. I let her help me open mine and Noah's.

The family came over to our house for brunch.

The dessert table. Yummy carrot cake and lots of chocolates.

 The day wouldn't be complete without stickers EVERYWHERE. 

 Ava put heart stickers on everyone. You either got it on your face or your hand.

After naps, we headed back over to Brian's house for a prime rib dinner. The kids were pooped by the end of the day. I think soon, that Christmas is going to have to be a one meal kind of day. It is a lot to have people over for a meal and then go to someones house for a meal. It does make it hard to be able to enjoy the day. I don't think I sat down until 2pm that day. I can't wait until next year. Noah will be more into it and Ava will be all over it!!!