Christmas Morning

After our traditional photo on the stairs and my forcing them to eat piping hot cinnamon rolls fresh out of the oven, (am I the only person who forces my kids to eat before presents??) we scurry into the living room and pull back a blanket to see what Santa dropped by. Since Santa has so many gifts to get for all the good boys and girls around the world, we keep our list short & sweet. The bigger gifts come from Mom and Dad who would never want to be out done by some guy in a red suit.

After they exchanged the gifts they got for each other, (my favorite part of the morning), we lined the kids up just so and handed them small bags containing their gifts from us.

The various bags contained disposable cameras, sunscreen, water goggles, and such, and a card that looked like this:

The card explained what we'd be doing over the break. As you can see below, the kids were totally surprised and ecstatic about our plans. It was not easy keeping this a secret from them but after watching their responses, I'm so glad we did!

A BIG thank you to my friend Kristen for offering her home in California thereby making this whole trip possible!! Pics of the trip coming soon...