Pie Face

Grandma and Grandpa Johnson gave the game PIE FACE to Ryan for Christmas and made us play it immediately!  It was a little nerve wracking for the boys but everyone had a lot of fun!

Christmas Morning

The kids woke up early and tried to sleep off and on until 7:00 but weren’t very succesful, I hear.  They were dying of anticipation and were counting down the minutes until 7:30 when they could ‘call’ to wake us up.  When Chris got their call, he took them one by one and brought them into our room to wait until we were ready.  So excited for today!!  I love their bouncing up and down in anticipation!

Blury pictures of the kids heading into the living room to see what Santa left for them…

Santa did, indeed, come.

Ryan got a golf bag, and lots of mission things in his stocking… books, ties and a journal.

Katie got a pile of cute new bedding – including a fury little one, which she loves.   Emily and Megan got Electric Scooters which they were pretty excited about – and POP Disney Princesses in their Stocking.

Luke and Matt were excited to show Dad their Pokemon and Star Wars cars from their stocking.

Luke lined up all his stocking stuff.  SUPER excited about his Blastoise Pokemon figurine and the Star Wars Cars.

 

Luke and Matt each got their own sled, which they thought was a pretty big deal.  So fun to see them so excited about it.

I got Yorks and Reese in my stocking among other things.  Santa knows me pretty well. Chris got candy, ties, socks and cologne.

After Christmas breakfast we settled into the family room to open presents.  Emily and Megan (and Dad) got me an Ice Cream maker. I’m so excited to try it out.

Matthew was so funny this Christmas.  He was SO excited for whoever was opening the present.  It makes sense that he would be excited for Luke’s presents but he was excited for Dad to open a shirt, and for Katie to open a journal.  He was just so excited about everything.  He was trying to get into all the pictures and was stealing gratitute hugs left and right.  So funny!   Here he is so excited about Luke’s Star Wars lego.

And here he is, excited about Emily’s new flannel shirt.  Emily is excited too.

Ever since Katie, and then Emily got ‘Cooking Presents and Recipe Binders from Mom’, Megan has been wanting one too.  I got her a cute apron and oven mitt and finally made her a recipe binder.  Very happy girl. She does love to help out in the kitchen.  Of course Matt was excited too.

Emily and Megan bought Katie a 3-year Journal.

Luke and Matt got Dad a Sports Puzzle.  I love Matt’s face here!

Luke and Matt gave Ryan the Jurassic World Movie.

Luke (and Mom) gave Matt some more Star Wars figurines for their collection.  Ewoks!

Ryan and Katie were pretty excited to give Megan a collection of ONE DIRECTION songs that they had carefully picked out.  She loved it!!!

Emily, Megan, Matt and I went Christmas shopping at Target early in December and wandered through the toy isles where Matt discovered Hot Wheels. He stood there with his mouth wide open looking at all the selections and decided then and there that Hot Wheels was the coolest thing ever. I have a video of him stacking up all the different tracks he liked and saying “Hot Wheels, Hot Wheels.  I love all these Hot Wheels”  It was so cute.  Emily and Megan noted his excitement and went home to research a good one online.  With Katie’s help they bought him a great one.  Matt was pretty excited and knew exactly what it was.  It might have been the hit of the day – except that he was so excited about EVERYTHING, you couldn’t really tell.  It was definitely the first thing he wanted to play with on Christmas afternoon. 

Headphones for the girls…

Matt (and Mom and Dad) got Luke a Wookie wind up toy.

Ryan was pretty excited about giving the boys Wii U Super Smash Upgrades – most of us didn’t know what all the excitment was about – extra guys – extra levels – but these brothers sure do love their Wii Time together.  The boys were excited.  At one point, Matt said excitedly, “I get to pick which of these guys I want?” to which Ryan responded, “No you get all of them!” which of course made Matt jump up and down.

Ryan, Luke and Matt gave Katie this cute red flannel shirt.

Ice cream bowls from Katie

I gave Chris a new dress shirt for work and as soon as he opened it, Matt came running over to me for a hug.  “Mom, Thanks for buying Dad a shirt!”  So cute.

So excited about this present.  A new camera and lens.  So spoiled!  Of course I cried opening it!

Soccer ball and new soccer cleats and shin guards for Bob’s upcoming season.

Star Wars piano music to Luke from Katie and Emily.

Every time Ryan opened a present he’d say, “Now my Christmas is complete.” Star Wars t-shirt is a must for this kid.  Hat and Gloves for Megan, and a new black coat and golf balls for Chris.

Chris has been pretty eager to take the kids skiing for years now and it just hasn’t happened.  This year we went through the calendar to find days when he could go with the kids – and we didn’t sign up for Basketball.  He bought ski googles,  tickets to Monarch Ski Resort, scheduled a hotel for January 4th and morning ski lessons for the four oldest.   They’ve only really skiied one time before – several years ago in the German alps.  They are so excited to really learn and go more often.  Since Megan is a 5th grader, she gets free ski passes this season.

Megan’s present to Emily – a detailed Christmas coloring book…

Guitars for Katie and Emily. Happy girls. In fact, Megan was overjoyed at their present too and ran upstairs to ‘claim’ her new ‘old’ guitar – Katie’s small beginner size guitar and promptly asked Katie for lessons.  Katie took guitar in Middle School and High School before switching to Choir and Emily just finished her Guitar class from Middle School. We couldn’t pass up a good Costco deal on a guitar for both of them.

Luke was so excited to get his cub scout stuff as one of his presents.  He has been reminding me that we need to go buy it for a couple weeks and is so excited to start!  The one meeting they had in December was cancelled due to a snowstorm!

New coat for Katie from Mom and Dad

A new Wii U Game for the boys

Star Wars dishes for Matt

Paris calendar for Katie, new vest for Mom from Dad, a basketball for Luke and the new expansion and organizing kit for 7Wonders for Ryan.  Now his Christmas is complete.

Chris got Sambas and cleats for Christmas.  He needed both pretty badly.  He’s playing indoor soccer with a great team this season.

Package from Brian This year we got a Christmas package from Brian and boy, did we luck out.  It was a JOHNSON FAMILY SURVIVAL KIT for the new year and of course the packaging and type was clearly from a graphic designer.

Chris got gloves and Christmas socks and a flowchart to help him decide if someone should date his daughter. Very clever.

 

I got a Blanket Scarf which was referred to as a Blarf during the rest of his ‘how to wear’ instructions.

 

Ryan got ties and Mission advice which he collected from the family.

Katie got a blanket and Dating advice. (I’ll add later)

Emily and Megan got crazy fun Drawing books.

Luke and Matt got Star Wars Disney Infinity characters… Han Solo and Chewbacca. (I’ll add later)

Package from the Moons  The Moons gave us LOTS of great stuff.  Spoiled again. Thanks, Nikole!

Traditional after opening piles…  Matthew – 6 and a half

Luke – 8 years old

Megan – 10 and a half

Emily – Days away from 13

Katie – 15 and a half

Ryan’s pile – 17 and a half

Chris and Lisa, 42 and 41

Our biggest and most exciting surprise was saved for the very end.  We sent the kids upstairs with their gifts and then Chris told them to hang out in Katie’s room and not come out for a minute.  They wondered what was going on.  Another present? 

Months ago Chris and I went on a date to the local German Restaurant Edelweiss.  It had been nearly two years since we had eaten German food and the nostalgia of the food and restaurant decor had us getting all emotional several times throughout the meal.  We had such a great experience in Germany and we talk about it as a family almost every week.  Even Matt and Luke who were 4 and 5 and a half when we moved back to the States get sad watching our European vacation videos and wish we could go back.   Well, right there in the German restaurant Chris and I talked of when we would go back and determined that this summer was the time… right before Ryan leaves on a mission.   We were giddy with excitement but decided it would make a pretty awesome Chrstmas surprise so we’ve been keeping it a secret for months.  Meanwhile we researched cities, made our itinerary and started booking homes.

Our red luggage – heavily used all through Europe – was in bad shape so we bought new bags from Costco and I made luggage tags from Shutterfly for each bag.  The girls had a Paris Travel Journal sticking out of their top pocket.  The boys had German chocolates and candies. 

When we marched the kids into the living room they screamed.  I think it was Megan who seeing a glimpse of the Paris notebook, said, “We’re going to Paris!”  And I think it was then when Katie started crying – not just tearing up but a happy sob.  With questions still in their mind I pointed them to the bottom pocket where they each pulled out a paper listing a city we would be visiting… Garmisch, Germany… Rothenberg, Germany… Heidelberg, Germany… Edinburgh, Scotland… Bath, England… Paris, France.   It’s going to be such a great trip!!  We have video footage of telling the kids – which I can’t wait to watch again.  I teared up and as talked about the cities we would be visiting and how we came up with the decision to go.  Katie immediatley wanted to watch home videos of Europe – which we did right then—so we could be excited instead of sad while we watched.  Can’t wait till this summer!