Christmas morning! It started earlier for some than for others. Matthew woke up to Luke’s coughing at 5:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep. Chris woke up and went to get him and take him downstairs. He sat in the living room and enjoyed staring at the twinkling Christmas tree with Matthew cradled in his arms. If Matthew had just looked down he would have seen a Geotrax Lightening McQueen car set from Santa – but he never did. After a few minutes, Chris decided to put all this ‘extra time’ to good use. His one cooking adventure of the year is to make Christmas breakfast – it’s what he grew up with. Potatoes, sausage, eggs and cheese all mixed together. We LOVE it!
At 6:56 Ryan ran upstairs to wake up the girls. At 7:00, when they all ran into my room I heard them say, “Hey, I smell something really good!” It did smell good. Dad heard all the excitement and ran upstairs. “Breakfast is almost ready… just wait a minute!” Instead of eat breakfast AFTER seeing what Santa brought us and BEFORE opening presents, like we normally do, we ate FIRST – which ended up being GREAT, especially since it was Sunday and we had church to get ready for. Dad brought up plates of Christmas breakfast and we ate in Mom and Dad’s room! Crazy. Then we lined up on the stairs for a picture before heading downstairs. Everyone was pretty excited.
Matthew and Luke’s Geotrax from Santa…
Matthew and Luke walked into the living room and immediately started playing Geotrax. Their Cars2 Geotrax set was already set up and ready to go. Pretty much the rest of the day they played Geotrax. Luke took apart the set multiple times to try a different arrangement occasionally disappearing downstairs to ‘get more tracks.’ Matthew kept saying “Geotrax upstairs!” Yes, it was pretty shocking. Luke and Matt’s Geotrax train sets live downstairs in the Bonus Room and is up and running 95% of the time… so to have Geotrax upstairs, well, Matthew just couldn’t quite believe it. In fact, just as I’m sitting here typing, Matthew just said, “Hey, that’s ME with the upstairs Geotrax!!! It was pretty cute. These happy boys didn’t do much else on Christmas day. Luke would break away to open presents if we asked, but then went straight back to the cars. Matthew on the other hand, didn’t want to open other presents at all. “No!” he’d say when we’d ask. We just didn’t bother him much. Chris and I were right to only get the boys a few presents each.
You just couldn’t be more happy about Batman underwear in your stocking…
A tiger from Luke’s stocking… He and Matthew are slowly collecting an AWESOME collection of animals.
Ryan hanging out with his Santa stuff… the new ERAGON book, lots of candy, undershirts, boxers... Seriously, I think this boy was happiest about his undershirts. He’s needed them for awhile – thank you Santa.
Stuffed animals for the girls…
Santa brought stuffed animals for all the girls… even MOM! Sneaky Santa. Katie got a penguin and named him POPPER. Emily got a horse and named him PRINCESS BUTTERCUP. Megan got an elephant and named him TUSCANY. And Mom got a adorable cuddly gorilla which is not named yet. I have to remind the kids that it is in fact MOM’s GORILLA since everyone wants to steal him. (Megan even tried to stuff him in her backpack to take to school one day!) I love him! Santa must know that this brand of German stuffed animals is our FAVORITE.
Emily setting up the animals with the tea set she and Megan got in their stockings…
After enjoying our stocking stuff and Santa presents for awhile we started opening presents.
Christmas present rules…
- Dad picks someone to start off the present picking.
- You must pick a present that’s not for you.
- You must give thank you hugs after opening.
- And then you can pick a present for someone else.
Man alive that makes present opening slow and so fun!!
Ryan’s iTouch… Ryan was pretty excited to find Dad’s old but newly revamped ‘iPhone’ wrapped up in green tissue. With it was a letter explaining that Dad had cleaned it out, added Ryan’s music, bought a new black case, and added $10.00 for new apps. Ryan was pretty shocked – he’s been wanting an iTouch for a long time and since Chris hasn’t wanted to spent the outrageous monthly amount for iPhone service here, it’s pretty much an iTouch. After staring at it in unbelief and hugging Dad he ran straight to the computer to buy apps etc. It was a fun present to give. Both Dad and I were a little teary.
Playdoh to Luke (and 2 to Matthew as well) from Katie… and hugs to Katie for a Junie B. Jones book for Megan.
I love this picture… Megan got started reading her Junie B. Jones book right away. … the little boys took a little break to check out Ryan’s iTouch. Ryan is wearing one of his new Italian ties hand picked by Megan in Florence.
Emily’s Emily Doll… Emily’s been wanting the Emily American Girl Doll for quite a while. She’s best friends with Molly, the Historical Girl from the 1940s. { Emily’s ‘Look like Me’ American Girl looks EXACTLY like Molly, except without glasses. It also looks just like Emily. Emily named her Molly right when she got her.} So when Emily started opening up the package and saw the red and pink stars on the side she was pretty excited. {There’s Matt just playing away with the ‘Upstairs Geotrax’.)
Emily and Emily. This was a fun present to give too. Chris and I were a little teary again because of how excited she was.
A new cowboy outfit for Emily’s doll, Molly, a PS bear for Katie (which came free with the polka dot jammies for the girls), and finally a 4th Wii controller for Ryan (and friends).
Emily and Megan went in together to buy me a Christmas present. Emily used $15.00 of her own earned money to buy me this present. (That’s after 50% is put into savings and 10% is put into tithing – so earning $15.00 of spending money is quite something. I was so excited to open it. (I love that you can see Ryan’s reflection sitting at the computer looking at apps.)
A cake platter. I love it! Thanks, girls!
Watching the kids excitedly run to the tree to get out a gift that they purchased with their own money for someone in the family is one of my favorite things about Christmas. Ryan was pretty excited about ALL the gifts he gave and put a lot of time into researching them online. For Emily he downloaded some great Disney songs to make her her own ‘Disney songs playlist’. Then he burned them on a disk so she could listen to them upstairs in her room. We’ve all loved it.
Playmobil Cowboys and Robbers for Luke from Mom and Dad.
I love how it’s really Emily giving the hugs here. She was SO excited to be giving BYU golf balls to Ryan and Dad for Christmas. Matthew immediately heard the BYU commotion and wanted to hold Dad’s golf balls. “One for Dad and one for ME!” he said.
Sacrament Meeting with the German ward…
At this point it was 9:30 and we had to stop to start getting ready for church. We had ironed and gotten everything ready earlier in the week, so everyone got ready quickly and we were out the door by 10:15. We were able to drive together for a change since Chris didn’t have bishopric meeting. Our ward combined with the German ward for Sacrament meeting at 10:45. (Based on the bus schedule because most Germans take the bus to church). We sang all the Christmas hymns in both English and German. Either they had to sing a verse twice because there were more English verses or we had to sing a verse twice because there were more German verses. I thought that was interesting. The bishop of each ward spoke and each had a translator for the other language. It was fun to be together.
I really like being in church on Christmas day. Singing Christmas hymns about the birth of Christ was very special. And to echo the words of my brother, “it’s great to be able to take the Sacrament on Christmas Day.” It was evident that everyone was full of love. Lots of hugs and expressions of friendship. I loved it.
Baptism of Bro. Thomas…
After Sacrament we were able to stay for a baptism. One of the families that Chris home teaches was a part member family. The wife and children are members and now Bro. Thomas is a member. Sister Thomas also happens to be Ryan’s 8th Grade English Teacher. We moved to the Relief Society Room only to find that it was way too crowded…. so back to the chapel. About half the ward stayed for the baptism. It was really neat… especially watching Sister Thomas the whole time. The whole group of us signed a football for Brother Thomas and then it was thrown to him at the end to show him our support. The kids thought getting baptized on Christmas was pretty cool.
Christmas morning Part II
When we got home it was about 2:00 and we were hungry again… so instead of lunch we had seconds of Christmas breakfast and got BACK into our jammies for Christmas morning part II.
Emily and Megan re-enacting ‘BIG TRAX!!’ – a funny part in Kid History 7. My kids can quote those like crazy!
The girls all got American Girl desks for their dolls… even Katie, who still loves to play school from time to time. Emily and Megan got princess pajamas from Dad. He picked them out for these two while he was in San Francisco earlier this year.
Megan and Katie went in together to get Dad another BYU shirt. He thinks he can never have too many and it’s always a fun present to give. He got another BYU shirt and BYU sweatshirt from me… plus some chocolate covered cinnamon bears from the BYU bookstore.
Dad’s not the only one who got a lot of BYU stuff. Katie gave Ryan a BYU pillowcase, and we gave Ryan a BYU flag and BYU pajama pants to match.
Ryan got Katie a new shirt from PS, which she loved of course. She’s pretty thrilled with clothes these days!
Matthew opening his ‘ICE AGE’ DVD. Luke’s pretty thrilled too.
Besides clothes and new boots, one of Katie’s main presents was the official handing down of my old Nikon camera… complete with fabric for a new camera strap and a series of photography outings and computer organizing lessons with mom. Of course I’m thrilled she wants to carry around a camera with her!
Love you honey. Another thing I got from Chris were grey cable knit UGG slippers. I LOVE them!!! He did such a great job picking!!
Chris’ main present was quite the surprise too. I got him a GO PRO Hero2 and a few accessories. It’s a fun little water proof video camera. He was shocked and thrilled. It was a good year for surprises! I think I was too busy enjoying the moment instead of capturing it on my camera.
Just being silly with Kates. Chris gave me this CUTE owl timer. It’s from a really fun store downtown on the Hauptstrasse that I discovered with Chris’ parents.
I gave Emily cooking supplies and a recipe binder this year – just like I gave to Katie when she was 9. My Emily ALWAYS wants to help out in the kitchen. With her supplies she got three tickets for ‘Cooking Lessons’ which will be held every other Thursday – opposite Katie’s photography sessions.
- Making homemade Potato soup.
- Invite a friend over and make chocolate chip cookies.
- Make a complete meal for the family. (Emily said, “Mom, you’ve got to make sure the meal is something really hard to make) Emily, I’m so glad you love to cook!!
Emily earned these stickers as a reward at school and thought they’d be the perfect thing for Katie for Christmas. She was so excited when she came home from school with this surprise and a notebook that she gave to Luke to practice writing.
We really had to pry the boys away from the Geotrax to open these presents but we PROMISED them it would be worth it. Lightning McQueen and Mater remote control cars for their Geotrax tracks. Boy were they excited.
Ah, there’s my Matthew’s face… I haven’t seen it all day.
Dad immediately went to work putting batteries in Mater and McQueen. Matthew was so funny. He wanted to introduce his other cars to Mater so he flipped Holley over so she could say ‘HI’ to Mater.
One of the things Emily has wanted for awhile is the American Girl glasses so that her ‘just like me’ doll could look even more like the historical girl Molly. Two months before Christmas Emily wanted to buy them herself but we told her it was just too close to Christmas and she couldn’t buy anything for herself until after Christmas. Then Katie and I quickly ordered them. Katie paid for them and excitedly wrapped them -- we KNEW she was going to be excited… and she was. I love these pictures.
Horse Stable playmobil for all the girls to share… although it was Emily who opened the box and spent SEVERAL hours following the directions and putting it together piece by piece the next day. She is the one that is SO into horses these days. I’m not sure how, but somehow this turned into ‘dog pile Dad’ and tickle fight.
Clothes, clothes and a Germany bag for Katie. She’s been eyeing one of those for a long time.
Luke wasn’t really feeling all that great on Christmas. By 5:00 he was exhausted and knew he wanted to go to sleep. “Dad, I’m going to bed now.” and off he went to tuck himself in. We let him sleep for awhile but didn’t want him to be down for the night so Chris went and got him 45 minutes later for his turn to open a present. Ryan had ordered a Toy Story 3 Wii game for him on Amazon that we all knew Luke would LOVE. Luke opened it, stared at it, and immediately asked if he could go back to bed. I made him fake a smile for the camera but it took all of his energy. He was warm and sick and we promptly let him get back in bed. Poor boy. He DOES love his new Wii game – especially when he can play it with Ryan.
Megan also opened new kitchen furniture for her dolls. I found those on a big sale in JULY and kept them hidden downstairs for half the year. The dolls really had a good Christmas.
Emily’s presents minus Molly who’s just showing off a new outfit.
Katie was especially excited about getting Harry Potter 7. She’s read all the books this year and loves them AND the movies. She was SO excited to see #7 again.
We were able to skype with Grandma and Grandpa Walton and Brian, Grandma and Grandpa Johnson and Amy and Chris throughout the evening which was so fun. We ate leftover Christmas Eve dinner for dinner and cleaned up the living room. What a great day!!
3 comments:
Whew, that made me tired :) Looks like it was a great Christmas!
Wow, what a wonderful, happy Christmas!! There just isn't anything like it--that wonderful celebration. Love to you all.
Thank you for sharing!! I too love this book. It was given to me last Christmas by a good friend and I cant wait to make it a tradition in our little family. Your family is beautiful and yo have inspired me to actually get going on it. Thank you!!!
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