Christmas!

Christmas only seems to get better every year with the kids as they get older and we are so blessed to be surrounded by wonderful family during this special time of the year.  Santa found our family in Atlanta again this year and we enjoyed celebrating the special day with almost all of the Ducote cousins (we missed Max and Annabelle this year) and had a great day of just spending time together with family.  On Christmas Eve we enjoyed a delicious meal that Anne Marie put together and then the kids were allowed to open one present each.  Everyone was excited to receive a new pair of Christmas pajamas to wear that night.

Uncle Greg then kept the gingerbread house tradition alive with supplying the kids with lots of sugar and good times!

We then hung stockings and made sure that the note to Santa was in a good place for him to read it.

I think that these next two pictures of Joseph and Sam are just the sweetest!  I'm not sure what they were talking about but I'm sure it had something to do with reindeer, cookies and carrots!

Excited kiddos all ready for the big night!!  Julia wasn't feeling great so she had no interest in being in the picture without me but thankfully we were able to get a picture of the whole family, too! She still wasn't overly excited about the picture but at least we got one to prove that she was there :)  

Michael and John arrived after the kids had gone to bed on Christmas Eve so Christmas morning was not only a great morning because of Christmas but also because of their arrival!!  Here are some excited kiddos trying to get the door open to run down the stairs that morning!

He made it!!!  And, he ate the cookies, took the carrots for the reindeer and even helped himself to some milk in the refrigerator since we forgot to leave it out for him!!  

The cousins checking out the tree!!!

SO much fun!!

Sweet Ella-she was so excited!  Ducote tradition is to open the adult sibling gifts on Christmas Eve which we did after the kids went to bed that night so on Christmas day, she asked me, "Mommy, why you not get anything for Christmas?"  I thought it was so sweet that she asked and was thinking of me!!

My Christmas wish this year was that nobody got sick on Christmas day and I still don't believe how crazy it is is that it all worked out-Julia ended up throwing up on Christmas Eve around 10:00 p.m. but then slept through the night peacefully and was fine on Christmas.  She was pretty clingy but ate a little bit and at least didn't get sick.  Everyone else was healthy all day, had such a fun day playing and it was the first day of the week that we were puke free!  But, wouldn't you know it that at 12:05 a.m. on December 26th, Joseph gets sick!!!  Crazy, right?!?  He was totally fine by the next morning so not sure if it was a fluke or just God letting me know that he really does listen to my prayers!!  I am thankful that we had a healthy Chrismas and were really all able to enjoy the day together with everyone!

Ella putting her gifts into a pile.  She was most excited about her sparkly running shoes, her electric toothbrush and her Hello Kitty pajamas!!

Joseph with a big smile next to his pile!  He was super excited that he received a robot that he asked Santa for and for his Ninja Turtle watch and umbrella!  One thing that I always want to remember is how Joseph called "lump of coal", "GLUMP of coal" this year.  It made me laugh every time and I tried correcting him the first few times but he stuck with it and it was just so cute that we went with it.  "Daddy is going to get a glump of coal from Santa this year.  I hope I don't get a glump of coal because I've been mostly good."  So cute!! 

We went to mass at noon on Christmas and attempted a family picture after but Ella was upset about her boots or something along those lines so this is the best we got!

Finally got her to look at the camera but it wasn't pretty!  Oh, there is always one!!

We celebrated Christmas dinner with all of the family and enjoyed a delicious meal once again.  I made Grammy S's Delicious Cake to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus which was a great way to finish out a perfect day.

Merry Christmas 2015!  We are so thankful that we had such a wonderful day with the almost all of the Ducote family and feel blessed to have such amazing families to celebrate the holidays with.