The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Well....(BIG sad sigh)...It's over.  But it was a blast and so wonderful, and joyful, and magical, and everything Christmas is supposed to be!!  Only 364 days till next Christmas! :)  It was our first Christmas in our 1st house.  The decorations were perfect (in my opinion).  The weather was phenomenal, although a little more snow would have been nice.  Saturday, we went to church with my family, then proceeded to my sisters where she hosted for the very first time, Christmas with the Kruckas' :)  It was great!  The food was awesome, we had lots of appetizers.  The kids were adorable!  When they heard Santa's bells ringing, they ran to their bedroom, without even saying goodnight and tried to fall asleep as fast as they could so that Santa would stop at their house!  (good news, he did :)) Christmas morning my husband and I woke up, made coffee and fried bread dough, a Kruckas and now Kokal, family tradition.  :)  We went ice skating, took the puppy's for a walk (because the weather was so wonderful), then went to the Kokal's for more Christmas family fun.  I seriously could not have planned it better.  Besides my dad having the sniffles and my father-in-law having the stomach flu, I could not have imagined it any other way.  I am so lucky and so blessed to have such a wonderful family.  I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas as well!  Below are just a few of the 600 pictures I took these past 2 days.  Hope you all enjoy! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

 My Handsome Husband and a photo I took at the end of Christmas Eve Mass of my dad singing JOY TO THE WORLD! :)

My sisters first time hosting Christmas Eve at her house!  It was a sight to see!  Look at all the gifts!  We are all so blessed!

 Standing around all the yummy appetizers!  I wish I would have taken more pics of all the food that was there.  It was A LOT!

Ornaments!  Every year my mom gets me the cutest ornaments.  It's one of the things I look forward to most.  This year she got my husband and I the "New Home 2011" ornament and a baking ornament.  My sister Tara got me the Angel, since I'm such and angel! :)  

My husband took these photos, notice my excitement in the black and white photo?  I LOVE my new salad spinner!!!

Some exciting moments captured of the kids and their mama!

Grandpa helping my niece with something...my sweet nephew.  :)  He said the sweetest thing, when we were waiting to open up gifts, I was joking around with him and said, "If all those presents under the tree are for me, then where are all your presents?!" His response was, running over to me, giving me a big hug and saying "You're my present!"  It was the sweetest thing!  Love that boy!

 Some ornaments on my sisters tree.  "Let it SNOW" was fitting, being that this year it was close to 50 degrees on Christmas!  I don't ever remember a more mild Christmas in my 29 years of being a Minnesotan!  It was crazy!  The pin cone is an ornament my niece made for my mom, with "blue sparkles" my moms favorite color. :)

Just some goofy moments with my sisters!  I love them so much!

Now for the Kokal side! :)  This was my little nieces favorite gift, her sparkly shoes that light up! :)  Look at those big sweet eyes!  Don't let them fool you! :)

Before all the chaos, I got a few cute photos of the youngest member of the family.  He is such a sweet boy and has some of the most amazing blue eyes!

The oldest of the grandkids has her two favorite things, daddy and her new American Girl Doll!

My sister-in-law picked out the girls Christmas present this year, they both got dress up outfits to play "bride" it is their newest game they like to play together.  Ever since Ash's wedding this past summer, they can't get enough of it! They just HAD to put the dresses on right away, it was so cute!

There were only a few meltdown moments, this is not a a very Christmas-like face! :(  

BRIDEZILLA!  HERE SHE COMES!!!  The other momentous breakdown was when this little one opened up her P.J.s and they had "tinker bell" on them, but no princess!  She was very upset...poor little bride. :)

At least his one is happy!

The beautiful table setting, as usual!  Always so cozy!

The food, my poor mother-in-law had to cook all my herself because her other half was sick with the stomach flu. :(  Everything tasted wonderful and my husband was happy because he finally got his prime rib!

All the hard workers!

Some happy moments... :) It was seriously one of the best Christmas' ever!

All is calm....

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!