Christmas '08

The kids actually let us sleep in until 8:30am. It was amazing, and wonderful! They are usually up the latest 7am. I was so excited for them to get up, I woke up about every 1/2 hour after 6am, listening for them to wake without success. Finally Braxton came out to use the bathroom at 8:30, and I told him to go wake the others so we could get started. We usually put up the child gate at the top of the stairs so there is no sneaking downstairs throughout the night/morning without us knowing. So I ran down to get the video camera setup, while Colby stay upstairs with them waiting for the okay. I got them coming down together and finding what Santa brought them, in fact I think we taped our whole morning in that room. However, I was so busy enjoying watching my kids open gifts, that I forgot to take pictures until the end. Oh well, at least we have it on video. We (Santa) get them a 50's Diner. You have to understand that my boys gravitate to "kitchen" type playthings where ever they go. So, I knew they would get a lot of play time with this. It took a LOT of convincing Colby and my mother-in-law that this very gender neutral kitchen would not turn our boys to the "softer" side of life. They played with that diner for 15 minutes before they even noticed that they had other things waiting for them. Score! Great idea. Tristan received an Elmo Live, to Colby's delight, which we all love to play with. Gabe got a Color Wonder Magic Light Brush, for all of his artistic abilities to be put to better and cleaner use. Braxton was excited for yet another Lego set from his dad and a Nintendo DS accessory kit from me. He lost all of his stylus' (plural?) this past August and has been using the tip of a pen lid as a stylus. I thought ahead on this gift, it came with 3 replacements, a Star Wars stick-on cover, car charger, and headphones all wrapped up in a "Sweet" Star Wars lunch box. He loved it. They all received a nice new Christmas sweater and movies, along with a new tooth tunes tooth brush and their very own cereal that they do not have to share. Colby got two Blu-Rays: The Dark Knight and Prince Caspian, the game Spore for his PC and the hilarious Shamwow! which he has been raving about after watching late night TV. (Gabe and I used it today, since I came home from the gym to 3 different cleaning soaps all over my kitchen. He says, "Dad you got a Shamwow? Oh, its great!" as we are cleaning up his mess and Colby is changing T's diaper.) Colby and the boys got me a purple Ipod Nano, I have been using Colby's old big Ipod, and wanted my own. I also got an arm band to go with it, and the book "Eat This, Not That" which I have been searching for. It's a great diet book to compare your favorite restaurant foods to make smarter eating out choices. Some have you might have seen it on "The Biggest Loser", "The Rachael Ray Show", and "Ellen". That's where I saw it, but I have heard that it has been talked about on other TV shows as well. For breakfast I made Pumpkin pancakes with Apple Cider Syrup, bacon and juice. Either I'm a terrible cook (this is extremely likely) or they are just not anyone in this house's favorite thing to eat. But, I tried to make a hot Christmas breakfast, and that's all that counts. It doesn't happen any other time of the year.

At 11:30 we headed over to Colby's parents' home for more gifts and food. Finally Gabe got his Nintendo DS, he won't have to steal Braxton's any longer. And then we could give him a final gift from us, his own DS accessory kit. Braxton received Lego Batman for the Wii, and another game for his DS. We unwrapped some new Sunday clothes for Tristan while he was napping. Colby received a new weed eater/lawn edger, he has been begging to go buy a new one. Unfortunately we cannot test it out until the late spring. I received a new Sunday coat that I helped pick out. After munching on snacks and working on the puzzle some more while the kids played we headed out for our next stop. I forgot to take pictures at both places, sheesh!

At 3pm we were expected at my parents' home for a family dinner and more gifts. Who can say no to food and gifts? Not us. Colby and I received gift cards and cash, sweet! Tristan got a movie and a toddler toy. Gabe got a coveted Nerf gun and a movie. Braxton got a movie and alien action figure. Did I mention that Braxton received 2 Nerf guns for his birthday, and both Gabe and Braxton got Nerf guns at parties before Christmas. It has been the year of Nerf guns, and a bit crazy with soft bullets flying throughout my home. But with a house full of boys, I can't complain, better that than wrestling in my book. We ate a wonderful turkey dinner, and enjoyed some fun family games that Heidi created. The kids all played with cousins for hours. We tried to soak up all of the parent time we could get, since they would be gone on a Book of Mormon tour to Mexico for 17 days starting the next day.

After a long day, we finally got home and played with the new toys and gadgets for a couple of hours before putting the kids to bed. They needed some quiet down time alone after all of the relative-ness. We were fortunate again to have friends stop by and visit for a bit before we called it a night. Unfortunately the kids did not sleep in the next day, but they did on Saturday. The busyness finally caught up to them.

Thank you so much to our family and friends for all the wonderful treats, cards and gifts given throughout the season. We are more blessed to have you in our lives, than to receive something from you, but we thank you none the less. Sorry for the list of gifts in this post, but I need to keep a record for our thank you list. We hope you all have a safe end of year, and we will talk to you again in 2009.