Christmas Eve Fun!!!

We arrived in Austin on Christmas Eve afternoon. Pretty soon after our arrival, the kids went out in Grammie's and Poppa's front yard to put out their reindeer food they picked up at Santa's Village.

Cal spent much of the afternoon watching his beloved train. Uncle Jason made a tunnel out of presents which was super fun to watch!
We had our Baker traditional Christmas Eve meal at Pappasito's. I brought my camera but forgot to take a picture. It was delicious! Ella had her first bites of lobster. Just like her mama, she loved it!

After dinner we came home and opened stockings (aka large gift bags with pictures of a stocking on them).

Cal had a Christmas VeggieTales in his stocking and immediately had to start watching!Christmas Eve pictures in our new Christmas pajamas. Could they be any cuter (the kids and the pj's)?:Even Ella had to take a pic of Mom and Dad in their new pjs!Just before bed Ella, Will and Poppa put out the chocolate chip cookies that they made with Grammie earlier in the day and a mug of milk for Santa.After such a busy and super fun day, it was off to bed!

Happy Birthday Ginger!

We had a family birthday celebration for my Grandmother right before Christmas at her home. Lots of family were there to celebrate and we all had a blast!

Here's the birthday girl:Cal enjoying Ginger's new pet:Cal being tickled by Mike:Some of the girl cousins whom Ella just loves (Ella, Camryn, Sydney and Payton)Ella and Sydney:

The cousins did their own rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas where each person takes a number to sing and put motions to. It was pretty funny. This was Ella's and Will's first year to have their own number and they loved it!

Will was two turtle doves and he did such a good job! He got to sing the most times and kept up with the song perfectly.
Ella was five golden rings and she was super loud and cute:Here's Bub doing his six geese a laying. Yes, he's actually laying a foil egg. Classic family entertainment!Here's Sydney's eight maids-a-milking:At the end of each verse, the whole crew does the partridge in a pear tree:Fun Times!!! We love you, Ginger!

Christmas With the G's

We had a blast celebrating Christmas with Mimi and Pop and Uncle Bub, Aunt Kristi and Greer the weekend before Christmas. We did all our usual Christmas festivities...just a few days early. We had our Christmas Eve meal of tamales and chili and Christmas Day meal of Shrimp and Steak...yum!

Here's the attempt at a cousin shot on Christmas Eve:

Much better when Mimi and Pop were added to the pic!Christmas morning started with the discovery of stockings stuffed with goodies:

Will loved delivering presents:

Pop opening his "Dinner of the Month" Club certificate:Presents, Presents and more Presents!Ella loved opening up her bedding for her new really big bed:

After the presents were all opened, it was so fun to start playing with them! Here's Ella and Daddy taking on Uncle Bub in a mean game of Guess Who:

Big Will loves his new Matchbox cars:Cal really was here for all the celebrations! Sorry you're not in more pictures Big Man!

Seems like I should end this post with something to the effect of "Merry Christmas to All and to all a Good Night"! However, our Family Christmas Celebrations were just beginning...

Birthday Party for Jesus

Ella, Will and Cal hosted a little birthday party for Jesus a couple of days before Christmas. The kids decorated cookies, attempted to make Christmas tree ornaments and listened to a brief rendition of why Jesus' birthday affects the how's and why's of our Christmas celebrations. Our crew certainly had fun celebrating with their friends!

Not quite sure how sanitary 8 preschoolers decorating cookies is with finger licking and cookie consumption...both of which are displayed in the photo below. The fun is well worth the germs, if you ask me!

The looks of concentration while cookie decorating:
Happy faces:
Baker's attempt to read to the kids about Jesus' birth:

This is where you could find Cal for most of the party, enjoying some fun one-on-one time with Pop:

We did have a birthday cake and sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus which was the highlight of the party for me...but it went uncaptured by the camera.

Ella's and Will's Christmas Show

If you look closely you can find our two preschoolers performing at their Christmas show. Ella is on the back row in a red dress and black bow. Will is on the second from the top row in front of the kiddo in the striped shirt. As you can tell from the pics, Mom and Dad didn't have front row seats. They sang Jingle Bells and Happy Birthday Jesus. Great job, you two!

Merry Christmas!

Before I was a mom, I had always thought annual Christmas card pictures with the whole family would be such a good idea and fun keepsake through the years. Well here we are in our 6th Christmas with kids and we have accomplished our second ever all-family Christmas card picture. (Oh and yes, last year's was actually taken at the beach back in August so that really may not count, but that's beside the point!) Here are some shots from the process a couple of weeks ago:

Five people (3 of whom are 5 and under) looking picture worthy in the same shot is not such an easy feat. In reality, all 5 of us joyful in the same moment can be a feat at times...but that's a whole different post!

And because we love a challenge, we added sweet little Greer to the crazy Baker crew and attempted a cousin shot. Here are our results:

This last one is my personal favorite! The girls are falling, Cal's finally decided pictures are fun and Will is all pictured-out. Nothing like a candid shot!

Merry Christmas from the Baker Family!