Christmas Day

Luke was awake at 4:30am (?!?!?) checking out the gifts. Can you say excited?

He did go back to sleep until 5:30 (wow) before he officially got up and made this lego sign.

And yes, the wooden cabinet doors are a project interrupted by an international trip to Ukraine. 

Darin's rebuilding new doors and this is his prototype. 

Happy kids waiting for Daddy. I didn't get around to buying 

Christmas jammies this year. Maybe next year? 

Last year when we hosted Irina, she never smiled showing her teeth. 

It was a very guarded smile. I love her new relaxed smile!!!

We started the morning off with a reading of the Nativity story from the Jesus Storybook Bible.

 We gave each of the kids something to read, something to wear, 

and something to play with. Also, a generous friend donated the gift of her time and 

resources and filled the kids stockings with fun toys. Thank you!!

We got Irina her own camera since she is obsessed with taking photos. The paparazzi was in full force yesterday. 

She took 514 photos from the moment she opened her gift until her head hit the pillow!!!! 

She was in heaven. Snapping pictures and then looking at the camera window to view them. 

She took pictures of ears, feet, toilets, books, toys, inside closets, flowers, noses, inside her mouth, etc.. 

She was squealing with delight. She kept reminding us it was Irina's camera. 

As opposed to Mommy's camera that she was always begging to use. :) 

The cowboy made a lot of appearances. He was so cute!!!

We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and enjoyed a delicious cake!

There was lots of lego building and picture taking before we cleaned up and went to Grammy & Poppy's for dinner. So thankful for all these people feeding us delicious dinners!! I can really compare the exhaustion I feel to having a newborn, so thank you to the generous friends and family for serving us by providing us with meals. 

Every year we take a trip north to visit with family at Christmas. We look forward to that time. We made the difficult decision to not travel this year in light of our recent International travel. We are so thankful for Darin's family understanding our situation and extending us grace. We missed seeing them this year! A 20 minute drive to my newly transplanted parents was about all we could handle. Our little butterfly does better with short visits. You can tell when Irina reaches her limit of overstimulation, and we need to hit the road. I was so thankful for relaxed time in different surroundings. What a day!

Lastly, Irina has observed me writing thank you notes since we've been back from Ukraine. (If you haven't gotten yours yet, it's coming!) I had finished a box and was going to recycle it. Irina asked if she could have it. Sure! During quiet rest time on Tuesday, unbeknownst to me she was busy making a gift for me for Christmas. She decorated the box with stickers and wrote "Mama LOVE." Inside, she drew a pretty picture on a notecard and filled the box with several pieces of her play jewelry. She hid the box under her bed until Christmas morning when she brought it out and placed it under the tree. She always surprises me with unexpected sweetness. I love her joy for giving gifts!