Christmas has never been so fun

The Sunday before Christmas we all got dressed up in our nice Christmasy outfits. The boys both wore red ties and James wore his suit for the first time! (I got it at a consignment store for $8!)

Rett wore a tie onesie that I made! Yes, I am an expert at them now :)

This is the first year that James has really "gotten" Christmas. He knows the story of baby Jesus and why we celebrate it, and he knows about Santa and that he brings presents. It is so much fun to see how excited he gets about everything Christmas. Starting at the end of November, he has insisted that Santa was bringing him a bike. Whenever anyone has asked him what Santa is bringing him for Christmas, he has without hesitation stated that he is bringing him a bike. No doubt. It is a fact.

Christmas eve we got our cookies and milk out for Santa and our bowl of grass for the reindeer, and then we sat down at the tree to open our one present (of Christmas pajamas). I told James that we were going to open one present, and my little master negotiator said, "Weeeeeell....Santa said two presents" as he held up his two fingers :) He eventually dropped the pleading for more than one present once we explained that he could open the rest of them tomorrow. He was so cute opening his present. He didn't even know what it was and he laughed gave this excited, "Whoa!!":

Helping mommy open hers:

Christmas morning everyone was awake before James. Finally at 9am, my mom went into his room to wake him up. He came running into the room with the Christmas tree and started looking around saying, "Where's my bike??" We told him we had to open all the other presents first before looking for his bike and he was okay with that. Opening his stocking:

 The first thing he wanted was to eat a lollipop, so we let him. My brother got this awesome picture of it. He loves lollipops!

A new pair of spiderman sunglasses:

 A Curious George book to add to the 15 we already have :)

 Anthony got a card with some cash from my brother, and as a joke the card was completely in Spanish. It actually was a get well card.

 James loved to help everyone open their presents, especially if he got to use these tiny scissors of my mom's. Every time someone went to open a present, he would rush over to them and ask, "You need scissors?"

 A cool dinosaur/car transformer toy:

 I told Anthony that I didn't want anything for Christmas, that I couldn't even think of anything that I wanted. He was adamant that he wanted to get me something, so he got me a really cool water bottle that is super insulated and durable and opens with a little button on the side. I loved it! It was a really thoughtful gift because I can never find a good water bottle that doesn't get broken by little hands :)

A Junior circuits set. James is so technical, he loves putting things together and taking them apart, so I knew that he would really like this set. It is definitely a toy that he needs help playing with right now, but I don't mind because it is fun for me too!

 Anthony and Daniel playing with it:

Next James got to open a Jake the Neverland Pirates pirate ship! This was the hit of the year! He hasn't stopped playing with it for two straight days. 

 Finally we tore him away from the pirate ship to open up...a helmet!

Then we had to tear him away from the pirate ship again long enough to read him a note from Santa that said he put something for him on the front porch...

 Loving his new wheels:

We had so much fun watching James enjoy his Christmas this year, it seriously ranks up there with Christmas as a little kid. I almost had a hard time falling asleep because I was so excited to watch his reaction to everything! In the afternoon, Anthony's family came over to celebrate with us and it was so much fun, that it needs a post all by itself :)