Christmas Day

Merry Christmas! We had a very relaxed Christmas morning since we had no family in town and no where to go. I loved it! We have a strict policy of not letting the kids get us out of bed before 7 am and amazingly they follow it! :) (I can remember 2 years in the recent past that we've been up til 3 am assembling something big, so on those nights, 7 am is still way too early!) This year I was awake 10 minutes before 2 of the kids - that doesn't happen very often. We started a new tradition this year on Christmas morning and I think we are going to "keep" this one too - a gal in RS talked about how her family would gather on her parents bed on Christmas morning and read the account in the scriptures of Christ's birth from Luke 2 and then have a family prayer before heading out to the tree (and ensuing craziness!) We tried that this year and loved it! It really helped keep calmness in the house while we were tearing through the presents. We also tried something else new this year - we all drew names and had to make a "homemade" present for that person without spending more than $10. It was challenging, but we all enjoyed it. Eric did his, plus helped 2 kids and I did mine, plus helped 2 kids. Everyone really liked the presents that we made for each other and we were all proud of the creative ideas we came up with!

For the out of town family, here's a recap of how it went for each one:

Taylor got accessories for his new ipod (this came a week before christmas due to an old mp3 player breaking - yes, we paid $25 for the extended warranty and was very glad we did, since they mailed us a refund check for the full purchase price that we could use for anything else we wanted ) He also got an xbox game, the guiness book of world records, DVD - Shrek the Third, and his partner present was a BYU themed corkboard for his room (made by mom, your's truly).

Megan's partner (Taylor) made her a lapdesk that was personalized with her name and pictures, she also got a snowglobe, new bike helmet, fairy books and an xbox game (Viva Pinata). The thing she seemed most excited about was the movie in her stocking - Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix. She is a HUGE Harry Potter fan. She became really obsessed with the snow globe after watching The Santa Clause 3. Now she plans to start a snow globe collection!

Brayden was so fun to watch this year. He's been trying to open up random gifts under the tree for weeks and gets really mad when someone tells him "no". Finally now he could open them and he loved it! But in reality, one gift would have been enough.... once he had one toy to play with, we had to coax him over to open up the rest of his gifts. Isn't that how it always works? His partner was Ian, who wanted to make him a wood car to play with. Eric and I had the idea to buy pinewood derby cars, cut them and paint them. It would be easy and cheap! Ian helped Dad sand and paint the car. He loves doing projects and working with tools, just like his dad! Brayden LOVED it! He also loved his disney story book, the mickey mouse clubhouse car, and the spiderman 3 wheel scooter! It was so fun to watch how excited he got with each box!

Ian loves everything about christmas. He loves giving as much as he loves receiving! He got a fun pinewood derby car from his dad, since he made one for Brayden, he decided he really wanted one for himself. Eric made a second one for him on the sly... he had no idea he was going to get one too! He also got Star Wars Lego game for xbox, a Ripley's Believe it or Not Book, Surf's Up DVD and a cool remote control car. His favorite thing was the spiderman web-blaster dart gun thingy...

Our big gift for the kids on Christmas morning was Rock Band for the xbox. This really was a cool family gift - all six of us have had lots of fun playing it! No one has mastered the vocals yet, but we all have fun with the drums and the guitar. If you think being a drummer is easy, think again! It's soooo HARD! Taylor seems to be the best at both guitar and drums.... figures... at least all those years on the trumpet are paying off! Maybe he'll decide to spend some more time learning how to play the real guitar we got him last year for Christmas. It's collected a lot of dust over the last year!

We didn't open any gifts from the extended family yet. My parents are coming into town Friday night, so we are saving them until then - then we get Christmas #2! Eric and I also have a big suprise for the kids that we will unveil Friday night - I'm so excited I can hardly wait!!!!