Christmas 2012! The year we spent Christmas morning with Queen Elizabeth.

Santa came!  Jake and I always like to go downstairs and make sure Santa made it before the kids come down. 

We got up super early so we could open presents before heading to Sandringham to give Queen Elizabeth flowers.  This picture of Luke and Ella coming down the stairs super excited and still half asleep on Christmas morning cracks me up!  haha.  My cutie ragamuffins :)

Once they saw their stuff, they snapped out of their sleepiness and dug in!

They scored some fun things this year!   This was the year of the dollhouse car, "real" makeup (aka Lipsmacker stuff), Lego and Minecraft stuff, blue watch, and shoes, among other things.

 Callie slept in while the big kids opened presents.  I was surprised that they didn't complain much when we said it was time to get dressed to go.  After about 45 min. of opening presents and checking out stocking loot, we took off for Sandringham.  It is about an hour away.  Every year, it is tradition that the Queen spends Christmas here with the royal family and attends the little church on the grounds.  After the church service,  children can give her flowers.  

I was a little disappointed that Kate and William weren't there since Kate hasn't been feeling well with her pregnancy, and Harry is off on military duties.  It was awesome to see the rest of the royal family in person though.  We will always remember this Christmas. 

I had debated staying home since it's hard to leave home Christmas morning, but I am so glad we went.  

Here are some pictures from Sandringham.  I was a little worried that Ella wouldn't even stay in line to give Queen Elizabeth flowers without Jake or myself by her.  Only kids are allowed to be in the area where they line up to give the Queen flowers.  Luckily one of her favorite older girls from church, Addie, was there to help her out.

In this pic Callie and I were trying to keep warm while waiting for line-up time.  She was a good sport   :)

Some of the crowd.  Waiting for the church service to end.

All ready to line up with their flowers!  Promise I really did do Ella's hair that morning.  That girl is hard on hair.  haha.  I fixed it before she lined up.  You can't meet THE QUEEN with messy hair!

 
Line up time!  The police let children with flowers line up. A lot of people started to crowd around when it was about time for the royals to come out of the church, so it was really hard to get pictures of the kids. Here's one of them in line though. Luke was having fun in line chatting with his buddy, Cole. You can't see El very well here, but she's behind Luke in the pink coat.

Finally time to give her flowers.  The crowds were too busy and in the way to get a picture when it was our kid's turn.  Luckily we found some great ones of Ella and her little friends in newspaper and online articles.  A friend was able to get one with Luke in it.  Here's a picture with the Queen holding the bouquet Ella had just given her. It was fun to see Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. 

And another of Ella and the Queen.  Her little friend Olivia is in the brown coat. She is in the pink.  I guess the Queen just said "thank you."  :)

I thought this picture we found in an online article was hilarious.  The Queen is holding the yellow flowers that Luke had just given her, and the red flowers Cole had just given her.  Luke's hand is still in the picture.  It looks like he's about to swipe her purse!  haha. 
We should have shopped for flowers sooner.  Those yellow ones, and the bouquet Ella had were the ONLY flowers left at the store on Christmas Eve. 

Ella and Olivia with Addie after seeing the Queen.

And the only picture we've been able to come up with that has Luke and the Queen in the same shot...

Goodbye, Queen.  We waved as she drove off in her Bentley with Philip, Eugenie, and Beatrice :) 

Katrina took a family picture of us on the grounds before we headed home.  Ella was ready to go home and play with her new toys.  She was a little annoyed that we wanted a picture, but we had to get one of all of us there.  Sandringham is a pretty place. 

Ella helped Callie open her presents once we got back home, and we all had fun with our new things. 

El was super excited about some of the things Callie got.  Cutie.

Callie with first Christmas loot!

My mom and dad gave her this cute Christmas onesie, so we got some pictures in it, too.  :)

Jake and I finished opening our presents, and then we headed to the Ingersoll's house for games and Christmas dinner.  The Jones fam was also there.  It was fun!  We took the turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy.  Jake's turkey turned out great.   We had a fun night of hand and foot.  We'll forever remember Christmas 2012.