Christmas Eve was Sunday, and can I just say... I wish it could ALWAYS be on Sunday?! It was wonderful. The kids and I dressed up in our Sunday outfits and headed to church. We were running late but thankfully we made it there in time for the older two to go up and participate in the song the Primary did.
I won't bore you with too many pictures, but you may enjoy seeing some of the behind the scenes goodies lol or bad-ies, whatever way you want to think of it.
Every holiday I try to grab a picture of us all and one of the kids alone.
They may have been cold, but they sure are cute as heck!
I thought I would be soooo mad about these pictures, but I love the silliness now when I look at them.
Church was only an hour due to it being Christmas Eve, so when we got home, it was time to bake our cookies. Despite my best attempts, I still screwed up one of them. But I at least got the sugar cookies right! Apparently the trick is.... to buy the dang bag all and just mix the few ingredients in. Every year I've tried to do it myself it's been a disaster.
These two definitely approved of our sugar cookies! They said they needed to do a taste-test for Santa.
We have a little tradition each year where we all open our Christmas PJ's and either a book or movie (it was a book this year) before bed. This year we did matching jammies and even Caleb thought it was fun.
Then the kids got Santa's eggnog and cookies ready. (I have it on good authority that Santa enjoyed them).
After "Santa" arrived, we stole a picture and peeked outside to see freshly fallen snow. We got ourselves a White Christmas again and boy was it perfection! That makes every single Christmas since we've lived in Utah (the first year we were in Idaho but got a White Christmas there as well).
The kids were under strict order not to touch any presents when they woke up, but Connor was sneaky and came downstairs before waking us to make sure Santa had eaten ALL the cookies. Then he put the mug and plate in the sink.
As soon as Caleb was ready to get up (around 7) we had the kids eat their chosen cereal for breakfast, and then sit for a picture in front of the gifts Santa brought them.
Connor had asked Santa for a Nerf racing thing (it's a good thing Santa knew what it was, because I was clueless.)
Evelynn looks ticked in this first picture, but it's because she thought it was the wrong Baby Alive because the carrier was on and it hid the purple outfit she'd specifically requested (she wanted the brown hair baby doll, not the blonde. The Baby Go Bye-Bye Baby Alive). As you can see, she got over it quickly when we asked which baby she'd told Santa she wanted and got it out of the box so she could see it was the right one.
Liam wanted another Little People Zoo collection. As you can see, Santa did not disappoint,
The kids were so excited while they opened all their presents.
Caleb and I aren't really big present people. We usually pick something out and sometimes we try to surprise one another, but we'd much rather spend more on the kids and less on ourselves.
Caleb was excited to open a gaming controller that I think he said was for his switch.
I tried to surprise him this year and say this little handheld old-school arcade with a bunch of games on it. It seemed like something he would like, so I told him I got a surprise gift and laughed at each of his guesses for a good week or so. I didn't do too bad I guess, since he was smiling in the end.
We like to get each of the kids a "big" gift from us each Christmas. I suppose it's our way of making sure they know Santa isn't the only person who gets them nice things.
I think the biggest hit of this Christmas was Connor's face when he opened the 3DS from Caleb. We had a bow on it and Connor said "No, that's Daddy's". When we explained that no, Daddy was giving it to him, he was so surprised! "For me?!?!?!" I thought he might cry, he was so excited.
We've been trying to give him more big kid things rather than little kids things.
Evelynn typically asks for a lot of baby and doll toys, but we decided to get her something different and go for a mermaid toy. She thinks it's super cool, even though she's already at the time top of it's recommended age-range.
Liam's big present was an addition to his V-tech track collection. It was an Airport, and he was so excited about it! (these tracks can connect to Evelynn's set so they've all been having fun with it).
When I was growing up my mom would take pictures of every kid on their blanket (which would hold their spot on the floor and keep the presents out of the way) and we've continued on that tradition. Don't let the presents make you judge how good of a Christmas you think we had (not all these presents are from Caleb and I, and Evelynn had an extra doll sitting there that she got for her birthday last year).
After all the excitement of present-opening was done, Caleb settled down to work on releasing all these toys from their packages, and I got to do a short Skype with my parents and my missionary brother!
That evening my sister and her boys stopped in for an over-nighter again. We stayed up way too late talking, and the next day we planned a fun activity for the kiddos. Her youngest wasn't feeling the best and so we didn't think going someone we had to pay for would be the best experience, and I wasn't feeling 100% either. So instead, we went to the store, got Redbox (Ninjago and Leap!), and did our own movie experience at home. We got popcorn, Rootbeer, even boxes of candies and did a "concession" stand where they could choose. We settled the boys on the TV downstairs, then took the laptop upstairs and turned the daybed and it's trundle bed in to a comfy couch to sit and watch our girly movie on.
They had do get on the road before the day got too late, but not before we snapped quick pictures.
It was such a fun way to end our Christmas celebrating!
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