Christmas

Christmas was a little more low-key this year than in years past, but it turned out to be great. Jeff and I usually go skiing with his brother and sisters on Christmas Eve, or as close to Christmas Eve as we can. However, we opted out of Skiing this year. It turned out to be a really nice, easy day. I did a little work, we got the house cleaned, the boys played and we got everything ready for Christmas. The boys also helped me make sugar cookies for Santa. They had a lot of fun making the cookies as well as eating them.
We went to Christmas Eve dinner at Jeff's parents house, which is a tradition every year. We usually have a nice sit-down dinner with a turkey or ham and I was totally shocked that we ended up having Papa John's pizza! It was very nice to get together and MUCH easier on Jeff's mom to not have to cook, and to not have to do much clean up either. She made fried ice cream which was incredibly yummy. After dinner, we retired down stairs and had family home evening where we talked about the true meaning of Christmas and read from the scriptures. When we were making Christmas cookies earlier in the day, Nate and I talked about the symbolism of candy canes and about how Christ is how shepherd. During the family home evening lesson that night, I was impressed that Nate remembered what we talked about and could explain it to everyone, with a little prompting.
After the lesson, we went home and got the kids ready for bed. Nate and Zach got to wear some new P.J.'s and we placed the Christmas cookies on a stool next to the tree so Santa could find them. I was very happy that we got the boys into bed at a decent hour with the house mostly cleaned up. It made for a much easier night for me.
On Christmas Morning, Jeff and I were, of course, the ones who woke up first. I got ready and was contemplating waking up the boys. Jeff reminisced about how, as a kid, they got two-liter bottles of pop from their Grandma as a present. He mentioned how cool it was to have his very own bottle of pop. I had a couple of bottles downstairs and thought briefly about checking to see what I had for the boys. I was a really good thing he mentioned something because I had two more presents for the boys downstairs that I completely forgot about! I got them up under the tree just in time before the boys were up and about. The kids were up around 7:30 a.m., which is normal time for them.
We got everyone ready and Jeff got the camera out. We had gotten some used bikes from my brother for the boys and I thought they would be really excited about them. We placed the bikes around the side of the tree so they were kind of hidden. I had the kids check to see if the cookies for Santa were gone so they would see the bikes and, hopefully get a great reaction out of them. They saw the Christmas cookies and then looked up to see the bikes. They didn't seem every excited so, I asked what they saw. They said there were some bikes and I asked how's they were. Zach said, "for you and Dad?". I told them they were for them, but we still didn't get much of a reaction. They boys grabbed their stockings and then sat at the counter to look inside their stockings. I had to prompt them to even start opening presents! We started opening presents and got a little more of a reaction. Some of the first presents were socks and underwear where we finally got a reaction. I got more of a reaction out of opening socks and underwear then the bikes or some of the other presents! The boys got more into it and had a lot of fun. Addison opened a couple of presents and did great with pulling the paper off. There was one present where she ripped some paper of and was having fun with it. I tried to take the paper away from her and she got very upset with me.
Zach had asked Santa for a water gun, but Santa got the boys nerf guns instead. Kind of scary, but that's what he had asked for every time and that was apparently the best Santa could do because the North Pole doesn't make water guns. Nate had asked for a dinosaur race track with a loop-da-loop. Santa got a race track with a loop-da-loop, but Nate mentioned a number of times that it wasn't a dinosaur one. Oh well, I think Santa did his best and we discussed that a couple of times.
They all had a lot of fun and Nate mentioned a number of times that this was the best Christmas ever! We had just enough time to open presents before we had to leave to Jeff's parents house. We had breakfast down there and opened presents there as well. It was great to spend time with family and we had a lot of fun. The kids were great and we love Jeff's family. We were there from about 8:45-11:30 before we had to leave.
We then headed over to my parent's house in Highland and got there about 11:45 a.m. We were able to have lunch and open presents there as well. My family has a tradition of giving each other crazy socks for Christmas that they have to wear while we open presents. Some were more tame than others, but the best were the socks that my "little" brother Shawn gave to Jeff. He gave Jeff two HUGE Christmas stockings that, when he put them on, they went up to his thighs. It was hilarious. We took a picture of all of the socks, but Jeff didn't keep his on while opening presents. We opened presents and had a great time. We then stayed to hang out and talk for a while. We loved to spend time with my family and had a wonderful time visiting with them.
We finally left about 4:00-4:30 and headed home for a couple of minutes. The boys got to play with some of their new toys for a little bit before we finally headed back to Jeff's house for a little bit for some dinner and to hang out with Super Grandma. We were able to spend a little more time with them before we finally retired home and into bed. Overall, it was a very long, but wonderful day. We loved to spend time with family and had a great time. However, I think we were all very ready for bed!