We started our Christmas celebration clear back on Tuesday the 20th when we had a surprise visit from Kris Kringle. We had a great time as he told the kids about all the symbols of Christmas to help them understand the true meaning. He then gave each kid a gift from his red bag.
The highlight of the night was for sure when he "strongly encouraged" me to put on the Rudolf nose and antlers while we all sang "Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer." Yep, I sang too. It was a bit nasal-ly...
On Wednesday Brother got to go with Marc and all the youth 12 and up in our ward to take fruit baskets to the elderly in the neighborhood and sing carols. I was so proud of Brother for going and braving the cold and the stage fright...
Tradition has begun that, that with my family the afternoon before Christmas Eve we go sledding in the fields. Well, this year we had no snow. So we did the next best thing... my mom and dad treated us all to a movie. (Tee hee) I love Muppet movies so I was excited to see the new one.
I didn't see much of it because Baby was not to enthused about being in a dark room packed with people she didn't know. So I got a good look at the hallways, the coin-slot games and smashed plenty of dropped popcorn into the carpet.
Then we went to my mom and got our Christmas Eve food all ready to go and ate... and ate... and then ate some more...
We were all so excited when Santa came and my kids were so excited! Brother was the commentator for everyone and was sure to make Santa aware of who everyone was, where they were sitting and who they belonged to. It was so cute.
Then we got our annual everybody-has-an-orange-from-Santa-family-picture.
Here is our attempt at our annual family-picture-in-front-of-the-Christmas-tree photo:
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| And, yes, Sister is wearing a Batman costume... for some reason she has decided that every holiday at Grandma Judy's deserves a costume... tee hee! |
Then came the opening of gifts! It is insane how much my parent love us. I mean they LOVE to give! There is one gift that I will wait for pictures to help with the explaining, but, all I have to say is, boy oh boy are they creative!
The best part of opening presents though, was opening our gifts from and to each other with Daniel, Tynelle and their kids on Facetime with us. It was the closest thing to having them here with us. We miss them. My mom cried after all was said and done because she longs to have her kids around her, especially at Christmas. I think all mom's want that.
We came home and got the kids in bed and woke up to a VERY excited Brother. 4 am, bright and happy he was ready to open presents. He had a long wait. Poor little guy. He really had a great attitude for the most part.
Finally we were able to get to the present opening and Brother and Sister could not have been more excited!
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| Brother was so excited when he saw it was the Easy Bake Oven he had been asking for. (He has already made cupcakes, a cake, and 4 pizzas.) He is having a ball being able to cook independantly, and I am so proud of his desire to cook for himself. |
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| Sister was excited about every thing but, I think the legos were a hit! |
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| I always love new clothes... |
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| And Marc could always use another pair of sunglasses... |
Baby, however, could have cared less...
She didn't open one single present that morning. She didn't even want to look up from her Scooby Doo movie on her iPod.
And then there was the Disney Arial Mermaid with light-up fin for the bathtub...
We then went to Marc's parents to have food and fun. I was a great day with the family talking and laughing and making great memories. We received some very thoughtful gifts. It really touched my heart.
I was very excited that this year both my mom and Marc's mom gave us gifts they had made. Marc's mom crocheted us a rag rug (which is amazing) and two trivets to match and my mom painted a hutch I wanted that she had bought from my friends, Jason and Amy. I didn' get a picture of Lynne's beautiful crocheted rug because I packed it away already, but, my mom wanted me to take a picture of the hutch so I do have that.
Well, so there is the journal catch-up for Christmas.
We are so very blessed not only because of what we received but because of all that we have.
Oh, and later on Christmas Night, Gary brought over some things we had left there and he was looking a bit like Santa Claus so I took some pictures... this is the one I wish I would have had for Christmas Cards...
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