It was pretty crazy around here, but we made it through another Christmas with the kiddos.  Since we’ve been so bad about updating lately, I guess I’m going to have to cram all of our Christmas happenings into one post.  Here are the highlights of Jackson and Ella’s 2nd Christmas.

The Babies Meet Santa
A few weeks before Christmas Shae’s mom group had a Christmas party, complete with Santa Claus.  The munchkins were having a great time playing with other kids, at least until Mr. Claus showed up.  The combination of nap time and all of the other kids crying at Santa set of Ella and Jack.  Shae made sure to get a picture of them with Santa, but it looks like something straight out of “A Christmas Story”.

Choppin’ Wood
After waiting for the weather to turn rainy, it was time for us to go find and cut down our Christmas tree (seriously, I’m starting to think it’s impossible for us to get a tree unless it’s raining on us).  To make things even more fun, Ella was sick and cranky.  We found our perfect tree pretty quickly, but of course we had to check the rest of the lot just to make sure.  Once Shae was sure our tree was the best one, we relocated it (no easy task) and I got to work sawing.  Jack tried to help me, but he was much better and running around in the mud than actually cutting down the tree.

Christmas Time
Once we had our tree, things were pretty uneventful until the parents (Shae’s parents and my mom) came into town.  We had a pretty nice time with the ‘rents.  We got some Christmas shopping in, and Shae and I were able to get out of the house and go see Avatar one night.  We were both so impressed by the movie that our parents went to see it the next night.  They loved it, too. Other than that, things were pretty slow.

Christmas Eve with the kids was a lot of fun.  It was nice that they could actually sit at the table with us during dinner.  They really liked the ham and potatoes (almost as much as Lunchbox loved all the bites they threw on the ground).  After dinner, we put out some cookies for Santa (yum), read “The Night Before Christmas”, and then we put the munchkins down so Santa could bring them their presents.

Christmas morning was interesting this year.  The kids were really into the wrapping paper and packaging, but they aren’t quite old enough to really get into the present craziness.  They were excited by all of the new goodies, but the boxes are still their favorite.

After the present opening excitement, a nap for the kiddos, and some crepes for breakfast we headed over to Mission Trails Park to go on a Christmas hike.  It was a Christmas present for Mr. Box and a good reason for Shae to use her new camera.  It was a beautiful day in San Diego, and we had a great stroll.

About halfway through the walk, we decided to let Jack and Ella get out of the stroller and stretch their legs.  They both had some fun toddling around, until another walker went by.  As soon as Ella saw this random guy go past us, she got excited and started “running” after him (as close as she can get to a run).  We had to chase her down and catch her or who knows how far she would have run.  Something tells me we’re going to have to teach her all about “Stranger Danger” pretty soon.

We spent Christmas night packing for our trip to Texas and getting ready for our plane ride with two toddlers.  More about that trip (and LB’s trip to the kennel) in our next post (hopefully tomorrow).  Until then, here are some pictures.