Christmas Fun--Christmas Eve and Morning

This year, Christmas was spent here at home. This was the first time in awhile that we didn't spend any time with family, but we thought, since we traveled so much last year, it was OK. We really missed our extended families and thought of them lots, but we created a lot of fun memories with our little family.

We had such a fun, relaxing break. We spent Christmas Eve with our friends, Chad and Barb, who had invited us over for a nummy ham dinner. (We brought our camera, but forgot to take pictures!) Chad is famous for using huckleberries in recipes. Even though he had just had surgery, he sacrificed to make huckleberry smoothies for us. He also used huckleberries in making the ham. Everything was soooo good!

We went home at 7:00 to celebrate with our own family. We sang songs and watched the DVD the church came out with a couple of years ago about the Savior's birth. It's so fun now that our kids are older and can understand that Christmas is more than just Santa.

The kids opened up their new PJ's and quickly went to bed. (Again, I was a slacker in the photo department--I usually take pictures of the kids on Christmas Eve.)

Christmas morning began at 6:45 a.m. We opened presents until 9:00 a.m.--a new record! The kids really took their time opening and appreciating each gift.

Ben kept saying, "This is the best Christmas ever!" (If you know Ben, he doesn't get overly excited about much, so obviously, he got what he asked for--a Nintendo DS.)

Rachel was happy with her own DS and Webkinz. She was disappointed when she tried to get online the first few days after Christmas, because obviously, every other kid in America got Webkinz, too, and their servers were down. But she's having fun, now!





Steven has officially joined the "tween" years--he got a Zune and a cell phone. (Well, a 10 minute SIM card for one of our old cell phones. He doesn't actually talk on the phone. He said if he does, he'll buy his own minutes. He wanted it for the games, etc.)




Sophia scored, bigtime. Her friend, Alexa, had handed down some of her fun toys, so we put them all in a gift bag from her and let her at it. She got some fun, new bath toys that she LOVES! She had the most fun with the banana that was in her stocking!My favorite gift was my new big scriptures with a nice case. I've been using my compact set of missionary scriptures that are falling apart. Steve bought the larger print ones--it's actually fun to read them now because I can read them!

Steve's favorite gift was a Wii with Guitar Hero III. We spent the entire Christmas day (and next days, too!) playing.

(Notice I said "WE." I even played--note from the picture that I stayed in my pajamas all day! I was having so much fun playing with everyone that I didn't even take my annual Christmas nap!) I'm sure he'll post a blog one of these days telling how far he's gotten.

The kids were happy the whole Christmas break. Everyone was happy--and you know what they say, "When the kids are happy, Mom's happy!" (OK--I know it's the other way around, but this works, too.) I love Christmas!