We opened Grandma Dear and Grandpa Don's present early and Thad and Adeline spent the afternoon putting it together. They did a great job and we have all had so much fun playing the humongous basketball arcade style game! I'm finally learning that you have a lot more luck when you put the right spin on the ball!
Our evening started with the traditional homemade pizza for our Christmas Eve dinner. This is something that we borrowed from our friends the Browne's and have done every year since!
Then we moved onto the family Nativity Scene. What's a family nativity scene without someone upset that they can't be a sheep, a shepherd, Mary....or the ANGEL! The kids had fun putting costumes together and deciding who got what part. Thad was the narrator and I was the filmer. We only had to start over once! We sang Christmas carols and the kids played the instruments of triangles, jingle bells and tamborine that we got at the Dollar Tree years ago and is still a favorite when we bring it out at Christmas time.
Finally it was time for PRESENTS!! This year I actually bought everyone new jammies. This isn't something I have always done, but when you camp outside of Target all night long on Thanksgiving night, waiting for it to open at 5:00 in the morning...you might as well throw them in the basket! They all looked really cute and it was actually nice to have matching tops and bottoms for all the pictures! But of course jammies don't count as THE present, so we opened two on Christmas Eve!
Christmas morning came a little later than expected, a very welcome surprise! Santa did an OUTSTANDING job this year and the kids were super excited about all their gifts. As Miles said... "usually Santa always brings bikes or scooters but this year he actually brought toys we can play with!!" Good job Santa! Zoe got a Barbie Jeep, Harrison and Miles remote control trucks, Jackson a video camera, Adeline a digital camera and of course the usual foamy soap and toothbrushes were thrown in.
Here is Zoe checking out her new jeep. With the snow she couldn't ride it outside, and of course we ignored the part of the directions where it said "do not use inside". We thought what can it REALLY do to our concrete floors?!! Well, let me tell you....when you get stuck up against the air hockey table with nowhere to go and your foot on the pedal, you spin rubber and bust up chunks of concrete! Yes, that cute little pink jeep is just as good as a jack hammer!
After playing with all of Santa's gifts, we actually ATE breakfast! Somethine we have NEVER done on Christmas morning before!! We COOKED and ATE!! Everyone was having so much fun with Santa we weren't in a huge rush to open all the other presents. So we ate and played, and finally made our way into the living room where more fun was to be had! Thad surprised me with a new iPod because Zoe took a bath with mine! I love it and really truly was so super surprised! Thad is a sharp dressed man with with new slacks, sport coats and shirts. The kids got more toys and presents than they know what to do with! DVD players, Wii games, more remote control cars. We actually bought so many things that weeks later they asked why there was a Wii Fit in the closet! We still haven't taken it out of the box! I think next year we'll have to cut back....yeah right! :) I LOVE Christmas!! Way too much fun!
After all the opening and cleaning up we got ready for Christmas dinner! The turkey was baking in the oven, the rolls and pies were ready, the missionaries were on their way over thanks to David Tucker, our taxi driver and official puller out of the snow man! Robert Simpson came over too and we had a delicious dinner, had an absolute blast with Elder Clark and Elder Cannon, played some basketball and board games and really truly enjoyed our Christmas day! We even got the Elders a little bit of Oklahoma so they'll always remember the best place on earth.
Now that it's over it really is hard to believe! We shopped and shopped, wrapped and wrapped, ate and ate...and now it really is over! Good thing there's next year! Did I say that I LOVE Christmas??
2 comments:
Love the pics Amy; looks like you all had a great Christmas!
so glad your xmas was beautiful. the kids look even bigger than when you were visiting - they have a habit of doing that don't they!?
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