Christmas day 2009

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

On Christmas eve we went out to a Japanese Steak House for Dinner. The kids LOVED the show, it was a wonderful night, we had a great time being together as a family!

We then went home where we did our normal traditions, of opening up 1 gift, chosen by mom, that is ALWAYS PJ's. :-) The kids always run to put them on and spend some time adoring each other in their matching attire. The mood is almost always "little house on the prairie ish". I had to take a picture of the kids gleefully singing and holding hands as the circled in the living room. This is NOT a common occurrence, so I had to capture it, I believe the song was Rudolph the red nosed reindeer.

Here is the family in their matching Jammies. They really like that Brent and I match too. Katie especially liked it this year. She likes to be twins with me. So the Story was read from Grandma Walls scriptures, and songs were sung with out the piano, (altho we have one, I stink at accompanying singing) and carrots, cookies and milk were left out for Santa and his pals. They said good bye to the elf on the shelf until next year, and headed off to bed.
This year Liza was "in the know" so she pretended to go to sleep and then got up and watched some shows with us. We put out the piles of gifts from Aunts and uncles, and Grandma's and Grandpas, and Great Grandmas, and then sent her off to bed.

Here are the spoils:
Oh dear, I think Santa went TOO far again!
Here they come... on the run!! Merry Christmas!!!

Santa brought Tori and Katie this wonderful "motor car". Tori has been asking for one for 3 years... she is nearly too big, but she LOVES it none the less. Later, on Christmas morning, Tori and Katie were cruising up the street in their car, tunes going on the radio, and bow still on the hood. It was a christmas dream.
Liza has been begging me to let her read Twilight. Altho, I hesitate, not because Twilight is bad reading, but because she is sure to ask to read the rest of the series and I am not sure I am ready for that. However, she has never ever been passionate about reading (she's too much like her mother), and I wanted to see if these books would spark that love of reading. Indeed it has. She is over 1/2 way through the book an it has been a little over 2 weeks. This is the most reading she has ever done. She can now be found, up in her room reading and any time of day.
Alex "lost" his bike right before we moved here to TN. It was too small for him anyway. The poor kid has been w/o a bike for 6 months. The poor kid has resorted to riding Tori's princess bike, which is almost too small for Tori. He was out racing w/ some boys in the community a few days before Christmas, and I felt so bad for him, he peddled his brains out, but to no avail, the bike was just too small. :-)
Katie asked for "the talking house", she was the result of all the commercials for it. She has however enjoyed it immensely. Not necessarily as a doll house, but as a Littlest Pet shop house, and a puppy in my pocket house. It's great for all those things.
One of my most favorite things about Christmas is when the kids give and receive gifts to and from each other. Tori bought Alex a slide whistle this year, he was so happy to have it. And I think they appreciate these gifts more because they know how hard they had to work to earn the money to buy their gifts.
Katie saw a Brown and White bear at Hobby Lobby months before Christmas. This began her Christmas List. For months before Christmas Katie was easily deterred from any and all toys in the stores with the simple phrase "put it on your christmas list". It got so that every time I took her in a store, she said a hundred times "mom, can I put this on my list?" to which I would have to reply, "oh, that ____ (insert name of toy, you had to do this to show that you were paying attention) yes! You can put that on your list." To which she would cheer "yeah!! That is on my list!" LOL!!! She is now making her "birthday list". :-) She spotted this set of bears so early on, that I had long forgotten where we were, and I had only ever been in a hobby lobby that one time, so I was sure it wasn't there. As Christmas approached she talked incessantly about the "black and white bear". I couldn't find it anywhere! Finally, as a last ditch effort, I tried hobby lobby, and low and behold, there it was... however, the bears were brown and white, not black and white. I bought them and spent the remainder of the days before Christmas trying to convince her that the bears were indeed Brown and white, not black and white. She came around fully when i took her to Hobby Lobby and we 'happened' upon them. She was so happy that Santa brought her her bears. :-) (BTW they were unstuffed bears that came w/ stuffing and 4 princess type outfits. )
Liza was spoiled for Christmas because Brent and I fell victim to a BOGO deal at the phone store. I needed a new phone, for I could never hear on mine, and it so happened that the phone I liked was Buy one, get one free. Her phone was free, but the cost to add her on every month is not. So she got a 1 year phone plan, after which she will be 12 and will get to work her phone debt off in babysitting. She can not text nor use the internet, but she sure loves the camera and video feature. I dare say she knows the phone better then I do. :-)
If you ask Alex what he got for Christmas, his top 3 are "a pocket knife w. my name on it, a bike and a fishing pole" He absolutely adores the knife that Grandpa got him. Grandpa used to be a cub scout leader, so he knows the importance of having a pocket knife. So far... so good with it.
After all the gifts were opened, It was off to the kitchen with me, to get making some dinner in my new pots and pans, using my new Knife set. The girls drove around the house, the best they could, but ended up outside.
Unfortunately Brent got sick on Christmas Eve and was sick all day Christmas day. It was a REAL bummer. I never realized how much I relied upon his approval of my big dinner. :-)

This is him sleeping while he is waiting for me to notice that he had snuck another gift under the tree for me. He gave me pots and pans, since I was still using the ONE pot that I was given as a wedding gift, and the same 2 frying pans from 15 years ago. He also gave me a knife set, which was great since we've used the same, cheap set for 15 years too. I was happy, even tho Brent promised me years ago that he wouldn't buy me kitchen things from my gifts. We both are spoiled and feel like these should be house hold expenses not gifts, I don't want pots any more than he wants a weed eater. :0) I was happy tho, to increase my kitchen, and had no idea that he had slipped another gift under the tree when I wasn't looking. Finally, much much later on, I saw it. "what is this?" I looked at it and opened it up...
Oh yes, my Friends, my Camera! The camera to end all cameras! Oh, this hunny is a good 500% better then the one I had. I was so thrilled. No more light frustrations! Yipee!!
And the FOOD! Oh all the food. Brent joined us, but hardly ate. Really just a taste of it all. He had left overs a few days later, but it's just not the same. It was a lovely dinner (if I do say so myself).
Katie didn't make through dinner tho. The kids were up at 3 (apparently) and were told to go back to sleep. We think they may have, but we're not too sure. Katie went full force till dinner, and the minute she sat still, she was out. Too funny. Poor girl.

It was a lovely Christmas. Everyone was spoiled beyond belief (see Brent's spoils in the post to come). We had a lovely day together, the kids played together so nicely. Katie and Tori took days to open their things because they were opening one thing, and then they would both play with it for hours, and then another thing and then play for hours, so because they were sharing, they too twice as long. They were so sweet together, it was fun to watch them. Although it was great, I am glad it only happens once a year. I was pooped when it was all said and done.

This was the greatest trash bag ever, the bike bag from Alex's bike. I couldn't believe that we filled it, and 2 other black bags and that the trash guys took it all!! Crazy. i think I'll buy a bike bag next year too. :-)