The Vance's: A very merry Christmas!

Christmas morning started bright and early, as do most mornings at our house. Somehow we convinced the kids to cuddle in bed with us for a while though, giving us time to wake up and mentally prepare for the craziness that was about to unfold.

My parents planned to come over to watch them open presents and eat breakfast so while we waited for them the kids got to open stockings.

Checking out what Santa left. Carter was pretty bummed that Santa didn't eat every single bite of the cookies he left for him. I tried explaining that Santa was probably pretty full from so many other cookies but he still thought he should have finished the plate.

Lucy got some piggy paint (nail polish) in her stocking so we had to put it on right away. It's so funny how she'll just sit still and not only let me paint her toes, but then wait for them to dry. If we were to ever ask Carter to sit still that long he might die.

The Vance family has had a long tradition of getting scratch tickets in their stockings. Matt has kept the tradition going in our family too. The kids won a combined $17 this year. Matt and I? $0.

My favorite family picture. So classic. So perfect. So real.

Love them!

He was so cute in those striped candy cane pi's.

New books are always a big hit!

Trying out her new mixer, just like mamas!

2 very happy, content kids playing with their new toys.

Carter's big gift from us was his very own tablet. Oh, how his generation is different than ours. He has limits on when he can use it, but it's fun to see him explore different apps for books, games and puzzles.

A pirate loving boy.

After breakfast we got dressed and drove up to the beach house to spend the rest of the day with Matt's family.

Round 2!

I love all of these smiles!

The grown-up kids.

And the present opening began, yet again! Carter got a new Batcave from Grandma and Grandpa Vance which he loves. He's now very much into little figurines (which are EVERYWHERE in our house now) and creating little worlds for them. His imagination and creativity is just exploding lately. I love to watch him play.

After a while we decided the kids loved opening presents so much we would just let them open all of them. For every person. Lucy was in heaven.

Kathy will probably kill me for posting this but I could't resist. Every year Matt's dad (Tom) buys Kathy a big gift. Usually it's a set of pots and pans or some new techy gadget. This year, not only did she get an IPhone for her birthday (2 weeks before Christmas) but then got an IPad for Christmas! Of course, she thought it was ridiculous!

And was disgusted. Haha!

Then, after a minute, she realized it was very thoughtful and was ready to join the rest of the world by learning how to use it! And, I must say, she has done a very good job of emailing, texting and learning how to navigate each app!

I got a new pair of boots but Lucy thought they looked better on her.

During the massive present opening I somehow lost a gift card that was tucked away in one of my boxes. So we took out ALL of the wrapping paper from the garbage bags to look for it. It was the perfect opportunity for Lucy to jump right in. And, lucky for me, Matt found my gift card! Whew.