Thursday, December 25, 2008

Christmas Recap

We've had a lovely Christmas! And I'm so glad. We celebrate on Christmas Eve--this stems from generations of Portuguese tradition. We do Christmas at home as a family and enjoy that very much. We start with a delicious dinner--we cook whatever sounds good to us.


Then, if Santa hasn't come to fill our stockings during dinner, we go out and look at Christmas lights while he comes. This year, we heard something upstairs or on the roof of our farmhouse. We looked around like crazy people all over the house. Sometime in all the looking, Santa came!

Putting out cookies and milk and some carrot slivers for Rudolph before dinner

Santa came!

We open our stocking presents one at a time--it's always fun to see not only the couple things the kids have asked for, but how well Santa knows us with the extra surprises and chocolates we get.



Then we open our presents. We don't go too crazy with it--usually one gift for/from everyone. It's still a lot, but it's simple and nice in its own way and we enjoy it. We open presents one at a time as well. We got all kinds of fun stuff--a summer swim pass to our local pool, GPS, fun books, a couple of American Idol CDs, a label maker (for me--and I'm so excited! I'm Monica!), and . . .

Present Time!

Super Hype Excitement!

Sibling Love

Sibling Gifts


Our gifts to the kids

Kate made some finger-knit scarves for us and our stuffed animals

. . . even the ever-elusive Princess Unicorn (thank you to my cousins-in-law Jill and April and my sister-in-law Emily for the help with this--April totally worked it so I could print this up from home)!







This year, after much deliberation, we decided we'd be okay with wii-ing. Our very good and generous friend Jim read our blog and got us a Wii Bundle and Guitar Hero World Tour! Thank you again so much, Jim!


Over time, we had pretty much thoroughly convinced our kids that we would NOT be okay with video games in our house (but the wii is such an awesome way to cave on that since we can play all together). Then, we set up the Wii the night before (and hid it well) so that we could just play when we opened it (empty Wii boxes). And of course, Mark and I had to test it out so we'd know what we were doing the next day. We were up until 3:30AM. I whooped him in bowling:


But then he beat the tar out of me in Boxing (it was a little disturbing).

And since then, we've discovered the wonder of Mario Kart! So, basically, our living room has looked something like this since Christmas Eve:


Our Mario Kart competitions have been FIERCE and lots of fun


Merry Christmas to all
and to all a good night!

14 comments:

HWHL said...

Looks like a WONDERFUL Christmas!
LOVE the photos! Thanks for sharing your family joy with us! We're finally wrapping up here... (Christmas indeed seems like the Longest Day Of The Year, doesn't it???) :-)
My husband is already SOUND asleep.
LOL. :-)

MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Emily said...

oooh, that wii looks so fun! You guys looked like you were having a great time in all those pictures. Merry Christmas!

We loved our presents, by the way, thanks so much.

terahreu said...

Oh Happiest Christmas to you, Foleys! It was great to see your day was so special. That is quite the load of gifts Santa left.

Now tell me, maybe I missed it, but what is the gift for Mark all about?

Foltron said...

Seriously, Stacy, I think that you out did yourself with the "Princess Unicorn" and I don't think that you'll ever be able to out-do it! Greg's a little jealous. Give the kids a big christmas hug and kiss from us! And you could lick them for Emmy if you want since that's how she kisses! ;) Love ya! (This is Jess, by the way.)

Jillo said...

Look at that haul! What a great Christmas for you guys. Sounds like the perfect, relaxing and family fun day. (and your Princess Unicorn turned out fabulous!) Merry Christmas!

kristenhcubed said...

Our living room looks very similar! It's super fun, huh?

April (Thorup) Oaks said...

Oh my goodness! What a stash! How can I get in with your friend Jim? Ha ha. We also got a lot of stuff and it makes me feel so blessed.

Tell Kate the finger scarves are brilliant! Megan would love to have some of those. I will have to teach her how to do that. She loves making clothes for her dolls.

I'm glad the pattern worked for the box. It was fun to see the pictures. I'm glad you posted them.

The next game you need to get is Mario Galaxy. It is so much fun! Also, I finally ended up buying Guitar Hero Aerosmith because the songs are a little better. The higher you get in the regular Guitar Hero, the worse they get. Worse meaning innapropriate. I haven't banned the orignal guitar hero from our house, but I think I will when Luke gets better at the game.

Chelle said...

THE Princess Unicorn?! How did you get your hands on one of those? Those were sold out months before Christmas! I am in awe of your creativity. I wish I had thought of doing the same for Jared. I can hear Mark laughing in that picture. You're awesome.

We did the exact same thing with our wii. We certainly didn't want to fuss with putting it together Christmas morning, and a little trial run the night before is a good thing.

I've put too much of myself into my baseball pitches. I can barely lift my arm enough to shampoo my hair. We're having so much fun with it! We told the girls to enjoy it as much as they want to until school starts again. I think we'll have a few days of wii withdrawal when that happens!

Merry Christmas. I love all the fun photos.

Love, your peasant friends.

Unknown said...

You live a magical life!!

You realize this right?

Swawa said...

I my gosh that looks like so much fun. And I'm totally cracking up over here about the unicorn princess. Well Merry Christmas to you guys. By the way when are we coming over next. :P

bythelbs said...

Wow, that's quite a haul! We've been rocking out to Rock Band 2 ourselves and loving it! Our band is called the Schrute Beats.

Loving that Princess Unicorn! Too awesome! I had planned to attempt a recreation of such a gift and just never got around to it. Glad to see someone pulled it off!

Boquinha said...

Thanks, everyone! Merry Christmas to all our bloggy friends. :)

HWHL, so wonderful! Thanks for the comment!

Emily, I'm so glad you like the presents!

Terah, it's from The Office . . . but I know you're behind a season. When you get to this season's holiday party episode, you'll see it. ;)

Jessica, I LOVE that Greg loves it so much. I'm so excited about that! What did he say again? Something like "It is the ultimate Christmas presents in all the history of Christmas presents and will never be surpassed?" Yeah. That's cool.

Jill, SUCH a nice day. So fun to chat with you as always. :)

Kristen, the Wii IS fun (and can make you SORE!). Totally worth it.

April, thank you SO much for your help!! It looks fabulous! We've heard Mario Galaxy is fun. We've broken out Guitar Hero and have been jamming to the World Tour songs--I'm not that good at it yet. Mark rocks.

Dear Peasant Friends, thank you for stopping by. YES! We're having so much fun with the Wii, too! It's exceeded my expectations by a mile. I'm so glad. Mark got SUCH a great laugh out of the Princess Unicorn. LOVE it.

D'Arcy, I do know that and am extremely grateful. Thanks for the comment! :)

Heheheh, Sierra. After the holidays, let's play. :)

Lbs! I'm so glad you like the Princess Unicorn!! Of course you'd appreciate it. I love your band name. Now I want to copy it. :P

Em said...

I'm glad you had such a great Christmas! Have fun with the Wii!

Boquinha said...

Thanks, Em!