Christmas Day

After the excitement of Santa, we had a relaxing morning.

Afternoon and present-time soon arrived.

Gift opening wasn't quite what Riley and I expected from Oliver... I had a disappointing experience with Paisley crying and my awful migraine on Christmas Eve.  This was much better, but a bit of a fight with Mr. O.

The very first gift he opened was a Mickey Mouse fishing pole.  He absolutely loved it.  Loved it so much, that he refused to open anything else.  

We literally had to bribe him.  "Open this and then you can have your fishing pole back." 

Our hopes of having him open Paisley's presents too was out the window.  It was rough enough just getting that pole away from him to open the next present.  He would open something and immediately ask for his fishing pole.  Oh, Ollie.  Had we known that the fishing pole would have been such a big hit, we would have saved it for the end.

The only wait to get this overly tired boy to take a nap was with his fishing pole! LOL!

Christmas Morning

Since Oliver is older now, he understands the idea of Santa and Christmas a bit more.  Riley and I were really looking forward to his reaction to getting the computer that he has been asking about for months. (Santa had actually purchased it a month or two before he even mentioned wanting one.)

He started out a bit cranky.  What can I say, he's like his daddy - not a morning person.

Santa brought Ollie a LeapFrog laptop, a doctor kit, and a stocking full of little things.

Paisley is more like mommy - a morning person.  (But lately she's also been a night owl... or an every hour of the night and early morning owl.)

Santa brought Paisley a Very Hungry Caterpillar plush play set, bibs, and teething toys.

It wouldn't be Christmas morning without grandma's homemade cinnamon rolls.

Christmas Eve Tradition

It's our tradition to have the kiddos open new Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve and to read The Night Before Christmas.  The book didn't happen this year, but the jammies did.

Before we get to that... I took the opportunity to get some photos of the kiddos in their cute Christmas outfits.

Cousin Carter wanted in on the action too, haha.

Couldn't seem to get a good picture of both kiddos at the same time...

Oliver took on the role of opening his and P's jammies.

Ollie and Pais showing off their new jammies with Grandpa.

Christmas Eve Mass

One of my most favorite Christmas traditions that we had when I was growing up was Midnight Mass.  We would have Christmas in Meriden at my grandparents' house on Christmas Eve followed by traveling back to our house for presents and church.  For the longest time, it was at midnight.  I can remember opening presents, eating supper, playing with our new toys, and then taking a nap before getting up to get ready for church.

Over the past several years, Midnight Mass was no longer at midnight.  Midnight Mass at 8:00 just wasn't the same and I guess we had to at some point stop calling it Midnight Mass.

This year it was at 6:00 and even though I miss the nostalgia of it being at midnight, it sure does work better with two young kiddos.

One of my favorite things that occur at Christmas Eve Mass is singing Silent Night by candlelight.  (My other favorite thing is when Santa comes and kneels by the manger.  Not sure why, but they didn't do that this year.  Santa must have been too busy.)

It took a couple of tries to get Ollie's candle lit because the little stink kept blowing it out!  Guess he is just practicing for his third birthday.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve usually begins at Rhonda's for lunch, but her house is just getting finished up so it was relocated this year to Uncle Jim's.

 This year was extra special with a visit from the Big Guy himself!

 Oliver was a little nervous, but excited at the same time.

 Earlier in the day, Ollie and I had visited the kid's craft table and made a gingerbread house and Santa out of craft foam.  Soon after Oliver saw Santa, he ran to get his Santa that he had made and ran to give it to Santa.  So adorable!

 Telling Santa Clause how he made his Santa craft.

 After Christmas at Jim's we headed back to my parents house for our Christmas.  We've always done Christmas on Christmas Eve and this year was no different.  However, this year was a bit chaotic for the Richling crew.  When we got there things were fine, we just waited a bit for my grandparents to get there. 

 Once we started opening gifts, my vision started to get really weird.  I knew this meant a migraine was on it's way.  (Ever since my open-heart surgery, I get terrible migraines from time to time and they always start with my vision starting to blur.)  I took some medicine, but my vision was messed up for the majority of the gift opening and then I had the headache that follows.  Paisley was also overly tired and spent much of the time screaming at the top of her lungs.  Needless to say this was one of the least enjoyable Christmas experiences I can remember.  I wasn't able to see much of what was opened or the reactions to the gifts.  Thankfully my vision issues and headache were short-lived (even though it was the entire present-opening time).

Due to my migraine and Paisley's screaming I didn't get any photos other than the one above.  Oh well, there's always next year.