Merry Christmas!!

Once again we had a wonderful and very fun Christmas. It is such a great time of year to reflect on the birth of our Savior and all of the numberless things that he has done for us. Christmas came upon us so quickly this year that it is hard to believe that it is already over and done with. Christmas Eve morning I woke up to the sounds of Matthew running through the house shouting "It's Christmas Eve, it's Christmas Eve!" What a wonderful and joyous way to wake up. It was easy to catch his excitement. We spent most of Christmas Eve at my parents' house helping to get things ready for that evening. Christmas Eve is the busiest day of the year for Karl's store so needless to say he worked a long day not leaving until after 6:00. That evening for dinner we had our traditional pizza and pop-it is a tradition that my family has always had. After dinner we were going to do our annual Christmas Eve program with Christmas stories and carols but since my kids were very wound up to say the least we decided to fore go it. Instead we just had the kids dress up and do the Christmas story. My mom wanted to start it again this year-we hadn't done it since we were kids. Summer was Mary, Matthew was Joseph, and Steven was a shepherd. It turned out...interesting. Summer, of course had no interest in doing it but we were able to distract her with a doll long enough to get her to sit still for a few minutes. The boys were being their usual silly selves. But at least we got some cute pictures! Afterward the kids each got to open one gift which this year was pajamas (but we don't do that every year).

After that we went home and the kids put out some cookies and chocolate milk for Santa Claus and hung up their stockings. They weren't hung up earlier because Summer kept pulling them down. Then they finally went to bed.

Matthew as Joseph

Summer as Mary

Steven as the Shepherd

Christmas morning the kids woke up at their usual time, just after 7 am. We had one near disaster as Steven went about halfway down the stairs before we stopped him. As the kids were waiting upstairs for Karl to turn the lights on the tree and get the video camera ready I overheard Matthew say to Steven "Christmas is about Jesus so it doesn't really matter if we get any presents!" I thought that was pretty cute. The kids were thrilled by their presents. Matthew's main presents were a Captain Hook's treasure island playset and a Geo Trax lumber yard plus several other things. Steven got a Diego Dinosaur Rescue playset and a wagon and more. Summer got a baby cradle, a Clipo Creativity table, and a Little People Noah's Ark as well as some smaller things. After they had fully admired their gifts from Santa Claus, they opened the gifts from Karl's parents and from Karl's brother's family. They got lots of great books, a couple of Lego sets and stuffed animals and some jungle animals.

Little Drummer Boy!

After that we had breakfast and got dressed and went over to open presents with my family. The kids got some fun toys (Matthew-geo trax train set; Steven a submarine; Summer twin baby dolls) and cute clothes from my parents, and some things from their cousins on my side (books, DVD's and a singing tea set). We had to go to Walgreens to exchange a couple of Steven's toys that weren't working and then we had a wonderful lunch of ham and potatoes.

Summer got this outfit from Santa Claus. It is a little big-if you look close you can see the pant legs have been rolled about 5 times!

Uncle Nathan-our great cameraman!

Summer got these twin dolls from my parents and she loves them. It was so cute at one point she had a baby lying on each side of her and was holding a bottle in each of their mouths. I was so mad that I didn't get a picture!

A girl can never have two many dolls! Summer wouldn't even put hers down to unwrap another present!

Annika had a lot of fun playing with this tea set that Summer got from my sister!

Later that day we just relaxed. My parents and brother came over to see what the kids had gotten from Santa Claus. It was such a fun day!

Mickey Mouse from Karl's parents