celebrating, sans butt wipes

when the bean crept in to wake us up on christmas morning, i found myself feeling much better, although still not back to normal (if that word actually applies to me, heh).  but when your 4-year-old snuggles up to you, gives you a big hug and kiss and whispers "mommy, can we go and see if santa brought us presents?" you get up and go no matter what.

i really wish i'd been able to capture the look on her face when she ran in to find the mountains of colorfully wrapped presents, or the stockings stuffed to the gills, and especially the cookie crumbs left on the plate she'd left for santa.  watching the magic of christmas morning unfold through your child's eyes is...priceless.  even though the true meaning of the holiday is most certainly not found in toys and gifts, there's a whole lotta joy to be found in the face of a kid who believes in santa claus.

with her grandma and grandpa already out there with us, she looked around and realized that there was still an important member of the family who was M.I.A.  so she scurried back out, opened a door, and moments later the group was complete.

we always plow right through our stockings before anything else.  this was about a nanosecond before she dug right into hers.

in an effort to avoid more butt wipes and other weirdness in my stocking, i chose a much more reasonably-sized one this year.  it paid off.

the bean was happy to deliver gifts to her sister, who ripped the wrapping paper off with dramatic flair.

it's always fun to watch the teen's antics as she opens presents on christmas.

oh, yes - that is most definitely a justin bieber singing toothbrush, courtesy of brother wan.  and this...well, this was from me.

 please tell me that you've seen those awesomely bad infomercials for the forever lazy.  the first time i saw it, i knew immediately that i had to order it for the teen - and for rock-ell, too.  come on!  now they can go tailgating in comfort.  and they don't even have to take it off to go potty, thanks to that easy-access zippered flap in the rear.  it's amazing.

by the way, if you should happen to find yourself in need of a forever lazy in hot pink, size small...i'm your girl.  because when i ordered online, i got confused and managed to order not two of these getups, but two SETS of two.  oh, yes.  i'm just that dumb.  i guess i could just send the other set back, though.  i dunno.  you tell me.

meanwhile, the bean was hard at work ripping the paper off of her own treasures.

do you love my oh-so-festive jammies?

and the hub found the awesomeness of the yule log on tv, too.

score!

a super cute outfit that arrived in the mail for the bean was perfect for this balmy, 75-degree christmas day.

i am an eternal optimist when it comes to the lakers on christmas day.  sadly, i was proven wrong yet again.

for some reason, this year's christmas tree was a dud - even though we kept a close eye on the water level in the stand, it was dry and super crunchy long before its time.  or maybe that's what we get for breaking our usual routine and getting it early.  in any case, the very next morning saw us packing up all of the ornaments and decorations and this was all that was left:

but before we'd hauled it away, we realized that the ornament that the bean made at school had been disguised as a christmas present that was hidden behind the tree.  oops.  so we had her put it up real quick and snapped this.  she didn't seem to mind the oversight.

lastly, we'd received a whole bunch of lovely cards from friends and family that we happily displayed near the front door.  it was fun to open the mailbox every day and find more greetings from folks near and far, ones we saw often and others not so much. 

i'm totally going to repeat this display next year.  just watch, it'll be here again before we know it.  sheesh.