A Little More Christmas

I guess I need to finish up all the Christmas fun before I move on to other things...  After all the Christmas morning fun of opening gifts, Matt's parents came over for brunch.  I love brunch foods.  It was super yummy!

 Then we opened some gifts!!

 The kids were excited to open our big family gift...

 I new ipad!!!

 Then we played a fun game of Disney headbands.  Must always get in some game playing on Christmas day.

 We played a bit more with our gifts and then we headed over to my parent's house for the evening.  Matt looked very Christmasy in his bowtie and sweater.

 Love these guys!  My dad was actually getting chemo during all of this via his pump.  Ugh!!

 Silly Kate.  Her Minnie phone was probably her favorite gift of the day.

 We opened up all the presents.  It is always a big production.  My dad liked his crochet beardo!

 There is always some gift that we all seem to get each other.  This year it was the "E" book.

 Kelly did an amazing job putting together a Team Gary book of all the pictures we have gotten over the past 6 months.  It is awesome.  Made my parents cry.  Always a good Christmas when someone cries over a gift.

 It was Matt's year to get the mint jelly...  Look out Andrew.

 Perry was so much fun to watch.  He really got into gift opening.

 We had mentioned to Kelly how much Ben liked science.  She took that and ran with it.  She made him a science kit.  It is full of experiments he can do.  It does include a set of real pig kidneys.  GROSS!!!  Who gives dead animal parts for Christmas?

 It was such a fun Christmas.  Full of joy in the fact that we have a Savior that came to Earth.

Christmas Morning 2013

We had the best and most relaxing Christmas morning.  Matt and I were up early just too excited to sleep.  We enjoyed the beautiful tree with so many presents under it.  

 The kids must have been really good this year...

 Kate woke up first around 6:30 and she came stumbling into the living room.  She got wide eyed and said "I can't believe my eyes!"  She was so excited and quickly went to wake up Ben.

 They were so cute inspecting all their gifts.

 Christmas morning means you can ride your scooter in the house.

 Matt and I did things very simple this year but we did get each other some fun things in our stockings.

 The kids enjoyed putting together Legos and playing with babies.  Matt and I just sat back and watched them.  I even took a little nap on the couch.  It was so relaxing and special.  A perfect way to spend the morning.

 We then hit the presents under the tree.

 I was excited to get my running skirt for my big race in February.

 Ben was thrilled to get the top thing on his list...  Disney Infinity!!

 Kate was just a tad excited about her Lego Friends house!!!

Everything about the morning was just perfect!!!  I love spending time with our little family and seeing the excitement on the kids faces.

Christmas Eve 2013

We had the best Christmas!!!  Really everything about it was just about perfect.  Can't wait to share all about it over the next few days.  It started out on Tuesday with some fun things on Christmas Eve.  Matt had to work all day which was a bummer but the kids and I made the best of it.  We stayed in our PJs most of the day and watched Christmas movies.  In the afternoon, we did work on a gingerbread house.  My parents came over to help us.  It was a lot of fun!!

 Kate showed off her disco moves.  Her and Grandaddy did some dancing together.

 It was a simple little kit but it turned out cute and we had fun doing it!

 Our Christmas Eve traditions were a little different this year since we are going to a different church.  Our new church had a Christmas Eve service so we all finally got dressed to attend that.  I tried to get a good picture of the kids but that didn't happen.  They were being silly!

 The service was great.  Such a good way to really remember the reason we celebrate.  On the way home we stopped and got some Chinese food from China Cook.  It has quickly become one of our favorite Christmas traditions.

 After dinner, we each opened a little gift.  Ben had shopped for each of us at the Mistletoe Market at school so we opened the gifts he got us.

 Matt got a "World's Best Dad" ornament.

 Kate got some really cool glasses.

 I got this really awesome pillow that Ben had made.  He did such a good job.  I love it!!!

 Then we had our traditional Happy Birthday Jesus party and reading of the Christmas story from Luke.  Ben even helped out with the reading this year.

 Finally we had to set out the cookies and milk for Santa and get some little ones to bed.

 I just love this note that Ben wrote to Santa.

Everyone was off to bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads (for some reason Ben and Kate had talked about this all week).  We were all excited to wake up for a super fun Christmas morning!!!!