Benjamin's First Christmas

Benjamin's first Christmas was about as special and busy as you can expect. We got to stay in Houston, and celebrate Christmas in our beloved house, yet, daddy was on call! We were blessed though, because he hardly had to go in at all : ).

A few pics I forgot to include in the last post, some more pre christmas fun times with friends:

Anderson and Bekah watching "The Elf on the Shelf":

Mason and Samantha had the gang over for christmas cookie decorating, in our jammies, while watching christmas movies! All the basics of a great Christmas playdate!

Robyn and her boys, bonding with Benjamin:

Samantha and Mason, isn't her hair beautiful????

Working hard on decorating, while sporting Samantha's Dora dress:

Okay, so here are some pics of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day:

Sarah's amazing camera took these pics, but for some reason, they come up really small on my blog.

Here are some of my favorites:

The "original" Burkharts : ).

Setting out cookies for Santa

Writing him a letter

Oh my gosh, I love this picture of me and my boy!

May May and Benjamin, snuggeling

Bekah in her Cinderella dress

Our Christmas present this year : ).

Since Zack was on call the week of Christmas, my parents and Zack's parents came in for the holidays! MayMay and Grandpa stayed with Rani and Jeff and Sarah stayed with us and Gramommy and Pops stayed in a hotel. With the grand kids here, our house undoubtedly became the "hub."

Brother/Sister Christmas Pic:

Mommy joined in:

You can't deny it, the girl really does love that brother of hers!

Getting ready for Christmas Eve service in our Christmas finest . . .

I had two people ask me how old "she was."

Really? Guess it was the peter pan collar!

Haha! The girl is getting better about smiling for the camera, or maybe it was just the Christmas joy she was feeling in her heart : ).

Wish this came out clearer . . . 

Gosh I love my family!

What a beautiful Auntie Benjamin has!

Okay, so Christmas Eve came and went, then, the next morning, it was time to see what Santa had brought us! We patiently waited for Pops and Gramommy to come over , before running down stairs, so we had a picnic breakfast of banana bread in Bekah's room beforehand. It was fun, maybe a new tradition??? We will see!

We hung the coveted dress on the tree, didn't feel the need to wrap it : ). As she came running down the stairs, you could hear her saying,"Santa brought me my Cinderella dress, he brought me my Cinderella dress!" before she even saw it! Good thing he really brought it, that girl was confident!

Her reaction was awesome! But she couldn't focus on the dress for too long, she had a whole pile of presents to tackle, maybe next year, Santa won't bring so many : ), but it was fun none the less! I definitely still have some presents wrapped up in my closet that she just didn't get to! We will be using those for her birthday, works out well!

My little girly girl does love anything princessy, but don't assume she wouldn't want a nice yellow worker hat or some goggles to match . . .

Dressing up is the thing to do these days, and with so many of her friends being guys, we needed to "expand her wardrobe!"

Benjamin found another comfy shoulder . . .

and Bekah just kept on, keeping on! She insisted on opening up her presents with her new "saw!"

I am loving the goggles on top of the head/Cinderella dress look!

Our pastor happened to mention the coveted gift of a car, for Christmas in his sermon the night before and what did we see when we looked out our window, but a new car for one of our neighbors! It was funny, I had never actually seen a bow on a car before, so I had to take a pic!

Bekah also got a Snow White dress, which has been a wonderful "back up" to the Cinderella dress because it isn't as "scratchy."

Bekah was very excited to finally add a boy to her collection of dolls,

now the girls have a prince to dance with! And of course, this is her favorite prince, Prince Phillip! It was sooo cute, when she opened him up, she got real quiet, found her Sleeping Beauty doll and she just held them, dancing together, for the longest time, singing the "I know you, I dreamt of you once upon a dream" song! She must have been in that sleeping beauty  zone for atleast 20 minutes!

After a good amount of the gifts were opened, it was time for our Christmas Feast! Thanks to everyone for helping to make it so delicious! It sure was fun to host, and easy, when everyone helps out so much!

I was very excited about using my Christmas spode!

Enjoying one of the many Christmas movies that day:

Gramommy and Sarah:

Me and my mommy!

The Mays and Jones':

( Nora found us these "poppers" for party favors, that had tissue paper crowns in them with "prizes")

Rani and Jeff and Rani's mom, sister and brother:

Aunt Sarah with her beautiful creations, she made those hats for Bekah! A goldilocks one and a teddy bear one, since she likes Goldilocks and the 3 Bears right now!

Talk about a talented Auntie! Crossing my fingers that my kids get that Burkhart creative/artistic gene!

Bekah sure got that sweet tooth gene, from BOTH sides of the family!

Benjamin with MayMay and Grandpa:

Benjamin with his Pops and Gramommy:

Our little blessing:

( he is now no longer wearing anything Christmasy, he  "pooped his way through" his entire collection! : ) )

Isn't a holiday without some board games!

Playing with her new Rapunzel castle, in her new Cinderella dress. Yes, it is the year of the Princess, no doubt!

Speaking of royalty, I just love the name of our church here, Christ the King. It is a constant reminder to me and , as time goes by, to Bekah I hope, about who the true King is, and specifically, what Christmas is all about! I feel like she understood as much as she could this year, and I pray that we continue to help her focus on that, while being able to have fun with Santa and all the magic that world offers a small child.

I praise God for all of our many blessings, our friends and family being a BIG and important one!

Just going through this post fills my heart with gratitude for what an amazing family God has given us! 

MayMay, Grandpa, Jeff, Rani, Gramommy, Pops and Sarah, y'all are simply the best and we love y'all so much and appreciate ALL of your wonderfullness and support!

Merry (late) Christmas to everyone and we pray that you have a blessed new year!