Christmas

Because of baby, this year we celebrated Christmas at home.  I truly love the magic of Christmas time with little kids.  I love that my kids believe in Santa and magic.  I love their excited little faces as they see the Christmas tree loaded with presents that they are receiving, but also giving to others.  I even love that they wake up at 5:00 in the morning to see what magically happened overnight while they slept.  I wish that Christmas mornings like this never ended.  The night before the kids opened their Christmas jammies and their new ornaments.  

We also made cookies for Santa and left a treat for the reindeer too.  

Then before we went to bed we watched the new Nativity video put out by the Church this year.  I loved hearing Kelton talk about Baby Jesus and his Mommy.  That kid really is attached to all mommy stories.  We sang Christmas carols and tucked the kids in bed.  Christmas morning the girls let Jeremy and I sleep until 6:00, but they had been up admiring the gifts much earlier.  They opened the gifts from each other first.  McKenzie gave Cambrie the globe she was hoping for.  

And McKenzie got a new hedgehog for her collection, Zipper.  

They couldn't wait for me to open my gifts from them either.  McKenzie gave me a new case for my phone, and Cambrie gave me some bubble bath and a scent for my car.  They both insisted on using some of their own money for the gifts and were pretty proud of themselves.  

Jeremy's Christmas definitely had a theme.  He got a new wetsuit and sharkskin for his races, running gloves and a tool pod from the girls.  

McKenzie had a sixth sense for what each wrapped present contained.  Before she even started tearing open the wrapping paper she new that it was Caroline's new treat table.  Both girls are really excited that they don't have to feed their American Girl dolls bouncy balls anymore.  

New umbrellas.  

And the most surprising gift of all was an iPod touch for Cambrie.  She was totally not expecting it but so excited.  

She and Jeremy spent all morning getting it set up.  Trying to decide on passcodes and account names for an eight year is tricky business! Now she can listen to music (once we get more downloaded), face time all she wants with Grandpa (who is just as excited as she is for this new toy), and her first ap purchase was a stargazing ap (which she has used every night to find constellations and planets before going to bed).  

By the time the girls finished unwrapping their gifts the sun was just starting to rise and Kelton was still asleep.  

We finally decided to wake up the kid around 7:30, which is late for him.  He remembered how this present -opening thing worked from Nana's house and went right to work.  It was probably a good thing he was the only one with gifts left because he just went from one present to the next.  McKenzie and I each gave him a giant dinosaur and it was fun watching them play.  

He also got a new monster fleece blanket from me.  He saw me working on it all week so it wasn't really a surprise, but he was still super happy it didn't have any pins in it anymore!  

He gave mommy some new jammie pants, and a great Christmas hug.  

Then he opened up more of his gifts.  A shark boat from Grandma-Great Stratford that shoots gold dabloons. 

 A new mix-and-match book.  

Cars.  

And a remote control car!  Watching him drive his car is hysterical!  If you push just one lever forward it spins in circles, so you have to push both simultaneously to get it to go forward.  Because of the design it doesn't get stuck in corners, it just flips over on its back and keeps going.  With new batteries that sucker is fast too!  

For the first time in our marriage, Jeremy and I were able to spoil each other this Christmas.  I can't tell you how much fun it was to buy something nice for Jeremy that he really wanted and not worry about it.  It only took us ten years, but we made it :)  I gave Jeremy a new pair of Zipp wheels for his bike.  The best part was, he was completely surprised.  He was coddling those things (as well as you can coddle a bicycle wheel) all morning.  He almost didn't dare touch them because he was so in awe that they are his. 

 Jeremy bought me a new pair of diamond earrings.  The best part?  The are from Tiffany's.  I was literally speechless when I saw that blue box.  The diamonds are so, so sparkly.  I love them!  

After the madness of present opening was done, we hung out and watched some of the kids' new movies.  This picture I call, "Where's the kid?"  

We finally decided to dig out of the chaos early in the afternoon to take out gift pictures.  Each of us seems to be missing one or two things in our pictures because like I said, it was chaos.  But I have to say that even without the gifts, it was a pretty awesome Christmas.