Danny has been cooking and baking for days preparing for an Italian Christmas feast. He made homemade pasta by hand, sauce, meatballs, chicken parm, Italian cookies and fudge. Wow. He's an amazing cook and I so appreciate all that hard work...
Christmas Eve day was spent at Kimmy's house...
We played our family game of "Button Button". It never gets old and we have lots of laughs...
Me and my handsome boy...he's such a love bug...
Danny and Julia...
Me and my Julia...
We headed home and went to a nice Christmas Eve Mass at our church. Then back home to make Christmas cookies, open sibling gifts and watch the Polar Express. Our tradition!!
The kids did a great job picking out gifts for each other. Nicholas bought Julia a big tin of popcorn...
Gianna found an Xbox remote ornament for Nicholas. He got a kick out of that one...
Gianna found a pineapple ornament for Julia...she loves anything pineapple...kind of like my obsession with owls...
Julia bought Gianna some special clay to make slime...she was so surprised and happy...
Cookie time...
Eli's first Christmas. He wakes us up at the crack of dawn every morning and runs up and down the hall meowing like crazy. I guess he wants everybody up and out of bed! He's so cute though...how can you get upset with that face and all that soft kitten fur?
Santa showed up...
My favorite...making them sit on the stairs and wait...and wait...and wait. Helps build the suspense. My kids don't sleep in even now that they're older. They can't wait to get up! They make darn sure we're up and ready to go by 7:00 a.m.! I'm so happy they still get excited to see what's under the tree...
Stockings...
Nicholas went first and opened his big present. It wasn't a surprise because he actually helped pay for it. He's been saving and saving to buy a gaming computer and he finally got it. Santa brought all the accessories like a fun gaming keypad, mouse and some other surprises...
Gianna's favorite present hands down was her slime. I know...gross but that girl is obsessed...
I think this will be fun. My kids love s'mores...
Gianna also got an iPad...
My silly girl with a very comfy bathrobe from Victoria's Secret...
an echo dot...
a new backpack for school...
and some new sneakers Gianna has been waiting for...
and so many other fun surprises for the girls too!!
And one of the best parts of the day? IT SNOWED LIKE CRAZY THIS MORNING!!! It started off as rain and then changed over to beautiful snow! Just enough to give us a gorgeous white Christmas...
My family came over this afternoon for Danny's delicious meal and more presents...
We bought my Mom a record player and records. Such a fun gift!
Then I went to the basement and brought up all my old 45's. We had lots of fun listening to all the old music. Of course the kids were like "what's a record player and what's a 45???" So funny how times have changed...
Our button game...
Julia & Gianna imitating a scene from a silly sappy Hallmark Christmas movie we watched...
It snowed!!! Christmas magic...
