Christmas Morning

We had an awesome Christmas and we were very blessed to have the Christmas we had. Thanks to the goodness of people our Christmas was extra special this year. Ben and Sarah slept up in Daniel's room Christmas Eve night so they wouldn't see the presents Santa left downstairs before anyone else. It worked out well and they didn't mind at all. Kenny and I were up late getting ready for Santa to come and we were very tired in the morning. When the kids got up we told them to go watch TV for about an hour so we could sleep. They said OK and went into the upstairs TV room and turned on the TV. Kenny and I were amazed that they were willing to do so just so Mom and Dad could sleep. We have great kids. Of course we didn't make them do that, but just the fact that they would was pretty cool.

The kids waiting to head downstairs.

We had the kids wait at the top of the stairs for their turn to go look at presents. Every year we go in order of youngest to oldest, which is always hard for Sarah Kate. Dan wasn't too impressed with his toys. He did get the least impressive toys, but come on, a little enthusiasm would have been nice. Just kidding. It's good he was little and didn't much care because Gracie was getting tired of waiting and the older kids were having a hard time keeping her on the top stair.

Dan looking so excited to see his presents.

Gracie came downstairs and was very excited from the moment she saw her little house. Santa, I heard, found a Rose Pedal Cottage on sale at Toys r Us for 75% off, making it only $15.00. A great deal that he couldn't pass up, so that's what Gracie and Hannah shared for Christmas. Gracie automatically sat in her side of the house and began playing with the ice cream. Success for child number 4.

Gracie in her cottage. She didn't even notice she had more presents on the couch.

Hannah was next and she was equally pleased with the playhouse. Gracie's gifts were closer to the stairs so as soon as Hannah saw Gracie sitting in her side of the house Hannah stopped, sat down, and started playing with Gracie. It was very cute. We finally got her to look at her stuff and her face lit up. She immediately ran to her house and started playing. Success for child number 3.

Hannah after she found her playhouse.

Ben was up next and he was very excited to see his gifts. He ran down the stairs and ran as fast as he could to the slide where he had left his stocking. All Ben really talked about for Christmas was the Lego Indiana Jones 2 video game. He was so excited when he saw it sitting by his stocking. He of course loved his other presents, but that video game made his whole Christmas. Good thing Santa got him other things he could play with because we made him stay downstairs with the family instead of going upstairs to play his game. Success for child number 2.

I love this picture. Too bad there's not a better view of his face. If you look closely you can tell he's going "OHHHHHH!"

Sarah was the final kid. She was very patient even though I know it was hard for her to wait. She's funny when she's excited. She came running down the stairs, straight over to the little table where she left her stocking. Because of her excitement, she was jumping up and down so much that she couldn't even see what she got. What a goof ball. Her major gift was an MP3 player and she was so excited when she finally settled down enough to see it. She spent the entire morning dancing and singing to Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, and others. She was fun to watch. Success for child number 1.

Sarah with her MP3 player. She was in heaven.

The rest of our morning was a blur. The kids had a blast playing with all their presents and I spent most of the day getting ready to go to Logan. Darn procrastination made it so I missed Christmas. Here are some pictures from the morning.

Hannah is at the wonderful age where everything is so neat. She was SOOOOOO happy to get all her presents. This picture's fun because it shows just how happy she was to get Horton.

Ben gets to play basketball starting in January and he got a basketball and basketball shorts from Santa. It's amazing how smart Santa is.

Daniel enjoyed sitting in his seat chewing on his new book.

The little girls finally got out of their playhouses and discovered their other toys. They each got a new snap doll with new outfits and it was fun watching them play together.

This is what Sarah Kate did most of the morning. First she listened to music on her speakers then she put on her headphones and danced around.

After playing awhile we opened presents (I did a horrible job of taking pictures of this.) Ben got this bean bag toss game from Grandma and Grandpa Newbry. It has brought hours of entertainment to everyone.

As I said earlier, we had a wonderful Christmas. It's hard not to enjoy Christmas when you're surrounded by a bunch of little kids who are so consumed with the joy of the holiday. I love having Christmas, but it also makes me sad. I know that once the day is over that spirit and the joy that comes with the Christmas season is gone for another year.

I mentioned that I spent the remainder of the day getting ready to head to Logan. I've thought a lot about that and how I feel like, again this year, I was cheated out of Christmas. I miss the days where I could enjoy watching my kids play with their toys and not worry about packing and cooking and laundry and cleaning. I think Christmas should be an enjoyable day for me as well. Not a day just like every other day. So I've made a decision. Next year no matter where we live, I'm not going anywhere for Christmas. I'd be happy to have anyone come and see me and my family at our house, but not going anywhere. I'm going to stay home and I'm going to enjoy my Christmas. It may be a rude, selfish thing to do, I know Christmas is about family, but my kids are only young for a short period of time and I don't want to miss out on any of it. I already feel like time is slipping away too fast and I've decided to enjoy every moment I can with them. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas (yes I realize it was almost a month ago, can we all say PROCRASTINATION) and that 2010 is a wonderful year.

Christmas Eve (Finally)

So I'm a little late on my posting of Christmas happenings. So much for my New Years resolution to keep up on my blogging so I can add more mundane things that happen around here. Oh well! I guess better late than never. We had a wonderful, busy Christmas Eve at our house. I've already mentioned a few of the things we did, wrapping presents for siblings, finishing our gingerbread house, and having a party for Daniel. Once all of that was done we began our Christmas Eve stuff.

We heard about a house nearby that had a great Christmas light display. I looked it up online and sure enough it was only about 2 miles from our house. I had told the kids about it earlier in the day and they really wanted to see it. So after everything else was done we headed out to the lighted house. I must say, it was amazing. They had they're music synced to a local radio station from 5:30 to 10:00 and so you could just sit in your car listening to Christmas music and watch all the lights on this house blink to the music. Surprisingly it wasn't a fancy, new house, it wasn't even a big house, it was just a plain ordinary house, but I think that made it all the cooler. Just the fact that it was not necessarily a wealthy family putting on the show helped me feel the spirit of Christmas even more.

Opening Jammies

After the light show we came home to open our one present. Every year on Christmas Eve the kids get to open they're jammies. They look forward to this and it's fun to see them so excited over a new pair of jammies. After getting dressed in our new jammies, we had a little lesson on the importance of Christmas, the birth of Christ, and the true reason behind the holiday. I'm always impressed with how much of the Christmas story my kids know, even Hannah knows more about it than I thought she did. They're amazing kids and I'm so glad they enjoy learning about our Savior. After our nativity discussion and lesson we set out some Santa cake (left over from Dan's birthday,) egg nog (Santa gets too much milk,) and carrots and then put the kids to bed. Ben and Sarah Kate slept on the floor in Dan's room so Santa could go downstairs and give us our gifts without waking them up. They all did a good job falling asleep (it helped that it was past their bedtime) and then Kenny and I waited around for Santa. It was a good Christmas Eve. A little rushed, and next year I vow to be more organized so we have more time, but none the less it was a good Christmas Eve.

Ahhh Christmas Jammies

Our Gingerbread Mansion

Our finished gingerbread mansion complete with mess.

Another view of the masterpiece.

We haven't made a gingerbread house since we made one on Christmas Eve in Virginia with our good friends the Gulick's. When we decided to go ahead and make one this year we couldn't decided if we should make one for each kid to decorate or make a great big one for the entire family to decorate. We finally decided most of our kids are too little to do one themselves and so a great BIG one was made.

Kenny did the planning and designing of the gingerbread house as well as the construction. I probably should have helped more, but mostly I just sat back and watched. He did an awesome job and it took a couple days to get it all done.

The planning stage.

Kenny designed it on a 3D computer program. Now that's serious gingerbread house making.

The house was very well thought out by Kenny including the 'stained glass' windows.

After the sides were up (before the roof went on) we let the kids put some brick (chocolate covered banana chips) around the bottom of the house.

Next came the walkway (rock candy.) The kids enjoyed this an they really liked that we bought way too much walkway (it was very, very yummy.)

Finally on Christmas Eve the roof was added and Daddy installed triscuits as shingles. After that, the kids were allowed to decorate it as they liked. Ben and Sarah added the candies to the top and Daddy and the kids created the sucker and candy cane fence while I was helping the kids wrap presents for their siblings. Next Ben put lights (M&M's) around the windows and Sarah Kate decorated the trusses with gum drops.

Gracie is too little to get much out of decorating a gingerbread house, but she sure LOVED eating the frosting.

After the present wrapping was done I came out to help the kids decorate. Hannah really wanted to decorate with the big candy canes and she was determined to have them on the roof. Not a typical place for candy canes, but she loved it and that's all that matters.

We all just went to work decorating how ever we liked and finally. . .

It was done!

We had so much fun making our gingerbread house and we can't wait to do it again next Christmas. Hopefully we'll be able to make it quicker now that we know how it's done. What a great family project.