twas the night before christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring...
but holy crap the next day it was a chaotic mess of rapid fire wrapping paper and squeals of joy!!
cole was so into the unwrapping he didn't care what was on the inside...
slowly recovering from all the bells, whistles, bings, bongs, sirens and chatter of all the toys and getting back into my groove.
here's wishing you a happy day!!
i will have some giveaways tomorrow, so stay tuned!!
cute, cute, cute!! i love christmas and seeing children scream with delight to see what Santa has brought to them!!
Posted by: Kara | December 28, 2005 at 11:11 AM
Too funny....love the transformation!! Looks like FUN!
Posted by: Lisa Damrosch | December 28, 2005 at 11:23 AM
Every year we do so much running the roads and this year we decided to stay home and enjoy the season. It was so nice to justdo that! I hope you had a great Christmas and looking forward to your year long class...AS I GOT IT FOR CHRISTMAS!!!
Posted by: Heather | December 28, 2005 at 11:36 AM
Looks like a fun time at the Downey household!! I'm in the midst of trying to help organize my scrapping room....HELP, HELP!!! LoL....I also signed up for your class Donna and looking forward to it!
Kip
Posted by: Kip | December 28, 2005 at 12:43 PM
Love the pictures of the girls amidst the wrapping paper! Too cute!!! (Beautiful tree too!)
Posted by: Michelle | December 28, 2005 at 01:41 PM
LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing these photos.
Posted by: Ali | December 28, 2005 at 01:59 PM
Wow....that looks like my house...minus the blond children! ;))
Posted by: Lu | December 28, 2005 at 02:08 PM
hehehe, too funny. Gorgeous tree Donna, and such adorable chaos!
Posted by: Holly | December 28, 2005 at 02:39 PM
lol, cute pics donna!
Posted by: nadine | December 28, 2005 at 03:02 PM
Geez, our living room looked the same... both before and after! And, heck... my kids are 15 and 12 and STILL throw around the paper, make a mess and totally love everything about Christmas! Including the presents! :) Happy New Year, too, Donna!
Posted by: Debi B. | December 28, 2005 at 03:35 PM
OMG...your kiddos are wrapping paper tearing experts!! It looks like hurricane downey came through!! LOL!! Glad the kiddos had a good time!
Posted by: Jen | December 28, 2005 at 04:00 PM
love the chaos!!! and the before picture is pretty awesome too!
Posted by: Steph (karlslove) | December 28, 2005 at 04:01 PM
Cute! I can almost hear the screams and squeels through your photos!! Great post today!
Posted by: Darlalou | December 28, 2005 at 04:25 PM
Love the striped jammies! Looks like fun was had by all! Happy New Year!
Posted by: Jennie | December 28, 2005 at 04:38 PM
I love , love, love your before shot. That is what I want my house to look like at Christmas time. A fire place, a mantlepiece and a tree with fabulous lights. Instead it was 38 degrees C (ie. about 100 Farenheit and stinking hot!) and there isn't much need for fire places here in the land down under. My dream is to spend a Christmas in a cold, snowy place. I was born in Scotland so it might be back there or maybe the US. Thanks for your blog in 2005 - reading it has been one of the highlights of my year.
Alison XXX
Posted by: Alison Shearer | December 28, 2005 at 05:07 PM
Oooh, I love that top photo!! So beautiful! Love that you put the cards up on the mantle... By the way, I saw your Christmas card at Scrapbooks N More the other day and it was adorable!
Posted by: joanna | December 28, 2005 at 05:36 PM
Yay! That looks so fun! Glad you/they had a good time... and survived as we did as well... LOL. Can't wait to come by tomorrow... woo hoo!
Posted by: Deanna B. | December 28, 2005 at 06:47 PM
Hey! We had rapid fire wrapping paper and squeals of joy here too! But we don't have any CHILDREN!!!
Just two new ipods and a PS2 and a NEW CANON DIGITAL REBEL CAMERA!!!
Yup...you guessed it...I was the one squealing...
HA!
Posted by: Felecia | December 28, 2005 at 07:55 PM
Those striped PJs took me back to one of my Christmases as a kid. Wonder what ever happened to those??? What a fun Christmas you all had! Happy new year!
Posted by: Wendi Richert | December 28, 2005 at 09:52 PM
Oh D I agree with Alison. How darn gorgeous does your house look. Just magic. Oh totally love the girls PJ's! LOL
Posted by: Lee | December 29, 2005 at 02:31 AM
Tanner was just like Cole, he liked to rip the paper, but would rather play with his new train table that Santa brought than open everything. It was a great Christmas in our home also.
Melissa
Posted by: Melissa Raphael | December 29, 2005 at 06:47 AM
I love it!!! Someone told me this was cute, and boy, were they right - and so real, too. Thanks for sharing! kath
Posted by: kath | December 29, 2005 at 08:05 AM
very cute!! and I love the girls' matching Christmas jammies. Santa left a pair of those same ones for my DD last year under the tree on Chrismtas Eve...
Posted by: Renee | December 29, 2005 at 09:19 AM
your kiddies are just so dang cute! looked similar to my house christmas morning. chaos, but it is so worth it seeing their little faces light up!
Posted by: Jessica K. | December 29, 2005 at 09:30 AM
Beautiful Pix of the Kinder Donna. Glad your Christmas was a good one. Still digging myself out from a pile of wrapping paper. Send the mounted police soon. It's getting pretty deep in here!!!:o)
Posted by: Kathleen | December 29, 2005 at 02:10 PM
what a familiar scene! :)
Posted by: AmyG | December 29, 2005 at 04:14 PM
Beautiful tree, the kids look like they're having so much fun. :D
Posted by: Sandra | December 30, 2005 at 08:39 AM
your tree is gorgeous!
Posted by: Jen | December 30, 2005 at 11:52 AM
I just logged onto my first class, ordered my planner and cant wait to get it
Posted by: Barbara | January 02, 2006 at 12:26 PM