Christmas Day 2011

On Christmas morning, we got the kids up around 6:45am. They were already awake, but very obediently, they stayed in their room until we came to get them.

Santa had come and replaced the cookies we left him with play cookies. He also had read the notes the kids had left in their stockings and written a note in return.

The kids had a great time opening their stockings (that was nearly as tall as they were!).

Reaching in...

Ooooh...an I-Spy stick.

After the grandparents got up, the kids helped them open their stockings.

Santa filled Great Grandma Smith's stocking too!

Since we had church at 9:30am, we let the kids open one present before we went.

Santa had brought us special coordinating Christmas outfits! Here's our Christmas card picture since we never sent one out this year. Merry Christmas from the Hanks! :)

Wes and Sydney cheezing it up for the camera.

FINALLY, it's time to open presents!

We went youngest to oldest, but the kids were pretty interested in what everyone else got, too.

Wes' "big" gift from Mom and Dad this year was a Wii game.

Sydney's "big" gift was a cupcake/cookie decorating kit. She was excited about it.

After we were done opening presents, the kids got right into playing with their gifts.

Of course we had to try out the decorating kit!

Both kids mostly just loaded on the frosting.

Wes' masterpiece. The placemats were actually a gift from Wes to Sydney. I cut up the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and then had some of the pages laminated. I actually love the way they turned out. The idea came from Real Simple.

The kids got these giant Hershey's Kisses in their stocking. They made a dent in them after dinner.

We put them to bed right after this. It took them another hour to wind down. We learned our lesson about letting them eat half a giant Hershey's Kiss right before bed!