Emily’s 8th Birthday

Being only three days after Christmas, Emily’s birthday is permanently attached to all of our holiday fun.  This year she wanted ‘make your own pizza’s’, super cool cherry limeade sodas in little bottles, and brownie cupcakes.  We celebrated her birthday at lunchtime since her baptism that that evening.  She got lots of fun presents… including brand new scriptures that she was really excited about.  What else do you get when you turn 8?  Your own blog!  Check out Emily’s brand new blog… “Through Emily's Eyes“  to get all the details on her party!

Shopping on the Hauptstrasse

The Monday after Christmas we left all the kids home to play with their toys while we took Chris’ parents downtown to the Hauptstrasse.  We ate at the Golden Falcon and thoroughly enjoyed our potato soup, German salad and homemade noodles with chicken and cream sauce. We love it!  We then spent the afternoon checking out some fun stores. I’m always amazed at how busy this cobblestone street is.  Even fully snow covered, it is packed full of people all bundled up to enjoy some outdoor shopping.  Germans really know how to bundle up and keep on living.  It was a little too late in the afternoon for great pictures, but we still walked by the old bridge and then up on it to see the Heidelberg castle. 

Christmas Morning

Chris and I slept in Katie’s Queen size bed upstairs while Grandma and Grandpa were here.  At precisely 7:30 (appointed wake-up time) Ryan ran upstairs and burst through the door shouting, “It’s Christmas morning!”  The girls were up in seconds and came running to sit with us on our bed.  We giggled and Chris increased the anticipation  for a few minutes before we finally got out of bed and started getting ready.  The kids were soooo excited.  We took a picture on the stairs before heading down.

Santa brought mostly outdoor toys this year…. Ryan got a bigger bike.  Katie got rollerblades (exactly what she was hoping for).  Emily and Megan got blue and red razor scooters.  Luke got a German ‘no pedals’ bike and exclaimed that it was ‘broken’.  Matthew got a rocking teeter-totter that will probably hang out downstairs in the playroom.  He spent the first ten minutes straight sitting on it and smiling.

 

We headed straight from there into our stockings… German chocolate, playdoh, flowers and hair clips, toy cars, iTunes gift cards, Kinder eggs, comfy socks and German puzzle ornaments… to name a few.

 

As we finished looking through our stockings we went and found our ‘Nice Booklets’ in the tree.  I’ve been wanting to do this for years. Katie helped me by putting the booklets together.  Just a blank notebook  with letters from each member of the family. It was neat to read everyone’s letters… one of my favorite things about this Christmas, and a tradition we’ll probably keep.

Then it was time for our traditional Christmas breakfast. We set the table and lit all four advent candles while Chris made our Christmas breakfast casserole… potatoes, sausage, cheese and eggs.  

You can see our van completely covered in snow through the kitchen window.  It snowed ALL Christmas Eve and ALL Christmas Day and was just gorgeous!!  A perfect White Christmas.  (We even had church cancelled the next day!!)

      {American Girl table and treats for Emily and Megan}                                              {Woody and Zurg for Matthew and Luke}

            {BYU shirt from Lindsey!}                                        {A NEW CAMERA for me!}                                        {CD from G&G.}

               {A German Nutcracker for Grandma and Grandpa}

                             {Fun Disney puzzle from my girls}                                                                 {IPOD Shuffles for the four of us!}

                       {Shirt for Luke}                                                          {Vest for Katie}                                                   {Matthew hanging out}

             {2009 Game of the Year: Dominion (in German!) From Ryan}                               {Woody Potato Head from Grandma and Grandpa}

                  {Megan’s playmobil house}                                             {New scarf and hat}                                              {Luke’s CARS DVD}

                                                                                  {A new Calendar to Grandpa from the kids}

                 {The Girls Playmobil sets… small ones from Ryan}                                          {Nightgowns homemade by Grandma Johnson!}    

 

             {A book to Ryan from Emily}                    {Taylor Swift’s new CD from Ryan.  He was so excited to give it to her, and she was thrilled!}   

{Grandma and Grandpa Johnson gave Chris and I money towards Bikes.  Yeah!  I haven’t had a bike for years and years}            {Katie’s present to Dad was a real published Christmas book about her memories of our Christmas traditions.  Her teacher helped her put it together… it’s priceless!  Her present to Grandma and I was coupons for SPA treatments and cleaning!  Thank you Katie!}

         {Luke and Matthews trains from Megan}                   {Megan’s favorite present: from Katie}                    {Matthew so funny sitting in a box}    

    {All of our Christmas movies}

  {New pj’s made by Grandma Johnson}       {Playing with their cars from Ryan and their car mat from Emily}  {Nanny McPhee from Megan}

  

                     {All of Ryan’s books… He’s so excited!}                                      {‘Helping’ Matthew open his Buzz Potato Head from G&G}

We had a great great Christmas.   The kids had been working hard earning money throughout the fall and were so excited for their siblings to open the presents they had thought of and purchased.  We have the tradition to take turns picking a present from the tree… but you can’t pick one for  yourself.  It is always so fun to see them anxious for their brothers and sisters to open the one from them.  It’s one of my very favorite things about opening presents… and with six kids buying or making presents for five siblings and two parents… that’s a lot of excitement.  Enough to last all day.

We finished opening presents by 1:50pm but kept the Walton presents out to open while we Skyped Grandma and Grandpa and everyone in Vancouver later that night.  Lots of great presents from everyone!  We enjoyed the afternoon and evening with another big turkey dinner, movies and Chris’ new game, Dominion… which is really fun!