Christmas

We celebrated Christmas Eve at my parent's house. We had Dixie's egg rolls with sweet and sour sauce and fried rice for dinner (a Phillips family tradition).

Then we watched Kalle Anka (a bunch of Disney cartoons that everyone in Sweden watches on Christmas Eve) with Jared.

In Sweden they open presents on Christmas Eve, so we let the kids open one present each from Grandma and Grandpa. Corbyn opened a Planes Lego set and Peyton opened Aladdin's Little People Magic Carpet. (There's the squinty cheese face I was talking about.) 

We decorated cookies for Santa and then headed home.

This was the first year we actually slept at our own house on Christmas Eve. I bought this Cookies for Santa plate our first Christmas and I was pretty excited to finally be able to use it! And Corbyn was very excited to leave cookies out for Santa!

The kids had been wearing their Christmas pajamas all month, but they got to open slippers before going to bed. Peyton's slippers are a little unnecessary because she wears footed pajamas to bed, but she wears them around the house during the day and they were way too cute to pass up! (Rog also got slippers and I got pajama pants and slipper socks.)

After the kids went to bed, Santa got to work. Rog set up Peyton's princess castle.

And I arranged all the gifts.

The kids slept in until 8 am - best Christmas gift ever! We called my parents (and Jared) and while we waited for them to come over, I did Peyton's hair. Rog thought this was completely ridiculous, but my mom always did our hair before we were allowed to see our gifts Christmas morning and I didn't want her insane bed head hair in all our pictures!

Corbyn saw his Batmobile right way and was very excited to play with it!

He was also very excited about his Ninja Turtle Shellraiser.

Peyton loved the play necklaces and bracelets in her stocking.

And spent the morning going in and out of her castle.

After we finished opening gifts, we called the Hobbs via Google + and had breakfast - Clone of a Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls, Berry Salad, Breakfast Potatoes, Bacon, and Wassail (from Our Best Bites' Savoring the Seasons Cookbook).

We did FaceTime with Grandma and Grandpa Phillips, so they could see the kids open their presents from them - a tool set and a Jake Lego set (different than the one he got from Great Grandma and Grandpa Ririe) for Corbyn and a Cinderella doll and huge dog pillow (like the huge giraffe Corbyn got last year) for Peyton.

After Peyton's nap we went over to my parent's house for dinner. We had a Costco ham, Stuffed Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole, World's Best Dinner Rolls, Pear Pomegranate Salad (from Our Best Bites' Savoring the Seasons Cookbook), and Citrus Water Punch. Everything was really really good and worth every minute I spent cooking! (And it's a good thing because I spent a lot of minutes cooking!)

We watched some of the Disney Christmas Parade (recorded from that morning) and the kids opened the rest of their gifts from Grandma Lori and Papa George. Corbyn got Planes and Monster's University (both have already been watched many many times), another Planes Lego set, Hungry Hungry Hippos,  a Jake game, a Buzz shirt, and a Jake costume. Peyton got more Disney Little People (Ariel's Castle and Snow White's Cottage), a princess shirt (that she loves) and the Little Mermaid.

They both had to try on Corbyn's Jake costume!

We had this amazing trifle from Mel's Kitchen Cafe for dessert. (I used her recipe as my guide, but made a lot of my own adjustments - red holiday Oreos instead of mint Oreos, used a brownie mix instead of making them from scratch, used store-bought hot fudge instead of making it from scratch, added crushed candy canes, and added some red food coloring to the cream cheese layer). It was amazing (and surprisingly even good as leftovers). I already have plans to make a cinnamon version for Valentine's Day!

It was a Christmas to remember!