Christmas 2008

I can't believe it's over! Christmas has come and gone....again.
I don't have any sadness or feelings or let down at all. This has been a great Christmas season and the past few days have been really nice!

Yesterday the kids were insanely crazy-hyper. Carson and Parker were pretty much running through the house and being super loud and giggly from about noon to 9pm. Wow, it was insanity.

Sam found a way to keep Cameron contained, too bad this wouldn't work for the older two!


I hosted Christmas Eve at my house. My parents and Fern and Russ' family joined us. We did our traditional homemade pizza and crepes, which is a lot of work but so worth it! I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of the pizza, but lemme tell ya, they were good! I snuck a leftover piece today and my taste buds thanked me.

Here is Mel making a tasty Christmas beverage for us. Do you like her sweater? She's bringing sexy back, I mean, the 80's. Who am I to judge? I still have sweatshirts from the 80's that I wear all the time!


Oh hey, there is that infamous sweatshirt now! See the green sweatshirt? Yep, I think I got it in 1988 or 1989. Classic! Let me put it this way, I'm LOW maintenance okay?


By early evening the boys were starting to settle down a tiny bit. This picture doesn't even do it justice, but Parker's cheeks were hot pink, all day, from playing so hard. I couldn't believe it! I'm so thankful for Carson and Parker, who are not only brothers, but best friends. They play and pretend all day and rarely fight. Let's hope it lasts....


This picture shows the rosy cheeks a little better. Their cousin Aaron tied their sleeves together. Whoever said children provide endless entertainment is telling the absolute truth!


After stuffing ourselves, we played a few games, including the "left right" story. We've been doing this at Christmas Eve parties since I was in Jr. High. We write a story about all those in attendance and include as many "lefts" and "rights" in the story as we can. Then we all pass around presents, left and right, throughout the story, until it's over, and then we open the present we are left with (hurry, pass it left!).

Fern and Russ got Pez dispensers, aren't they precious?


Melissa, who is still trying to bring sexy back, received this really scary cat towel. It had huge pictures of cats all over it. The funny thing, is that Carson was seriously bummed that he didn't get it! He lamented about it for about 30 minutes after the game was over!

Here Melissa is imitating the cat's face. The mad cat imitation is my favorite. I may try to find a nice kitty frame, maybe with cat paw prints in plaster of paris, and frame this picture. I think that would make a sweet birthday present on her 21st birthday. I can picture it now...



Meanwhile, tweedle dee and tweedle dum got their second wind. Dag-Nabit!


Cameron, however, was a doll. He just loved the attention he was getting in his new Christmas jammies. Plus this is his first Christmas so I think he was trying to be extra cute and engaging. Aaron's Aunt-in-law (is that a real relationship?) knitted him this sweet neck warmer. We put it on Cameron's head, because his head gets so little circulation we thought we'd choke out the air all together. Cameron loved his photo shoot.




By this time, my parents and Fern and Russ left. So Sam and I (along with Melissa and Aaron) put the three boys to bed.


Then Aaron said "well, I need to go to the store to get stuff for Danielle's stocking. I was laughing because it was 10:30pm on Christmas Eve. Nobody is going to be open! But then I remember that awesome story about my Aunt Barb and Uncle Keith from several Christmases past..... They had spent the Christmas season getting everything ready for Christmas, no detail was left undone....until late at night on Christmas Eve they remembered something: Hmmmm, we didn't get our 4 children any presents! CRAP! So off they ran to 7-11, who were the only crazies open on Christmas Eve, and purchased their children's Christmas gifts. If I remember right, the kids cried on Christmas morning. Somebody back me up, am I right?

Anyway, there is a "Sev" as Sam calls it, right down the street from me. So off they went, and returned, with a huge flannel stocking and tons of gifts from the 7-11. Ahhhh, a Christmas miracle. Hey Aaron, next year you should plan the stocking thing a day earlier and then you can hit the exotic stores, like Walmart!!!



Thanks for hanging with us you guys! Best brother/sister picture ever!


Christmas morning:

We woke up to a raging blizzard. I think West Jordan got hit the hardest. My parents didn't have any power at their house but we did. They came over to watch our kids open gifts.

Again, Cameron was pleasantly surprised by all this "Christmas" stuff.


Parker was a little tired and hung-over from the previous day's run-around-like-crazy-until-your-mom-almost-has-a-meltdown fest.


And Carson was just happy to show his little brothers how things worked on Christmas morning!


Santa was amazing and brought #1 and #2 exactly what they wanted! Wall*E robots. I think Parker is sleeping with Wall*E right now actually.



To feed Parker's obsession with Ben 10, my parents gave him a new omnitrix. Check out his face, priceless!


Anywho, the opening of presents was great! Thanks to my parents and my brother Mike and his family for being so generous! The kids have not stopped playing for one minute today. It has been wonderful. At different times today both Carson and Parker exclaimed "this is the best Christmas ever!"

Right when we finished opening gifts, our power went out. Sweet timing. We eventually made our way back to my parents house, once everyone's power was restored. Talk about a treacherous trip! 3 miles in a blizzard are like 30 miles! This picture doesn't do the snow justice...but this is on my parents front door porch. It's actually protected from the elements but this much snow still made its way in! I loved having a white Christmas!


After we watched my parents open their presents, we had an awesome brunch. Again, Carson and Parker never stopped playing. I love how intense Carson's face is right here. Gotta love that kid!



The rest of the day was spent hanging out, shoveling snow, visiting Fern and fam, and finally, cleaning up this mess:


Around 7:30 tonight, another blast of a snow storm started to hit. It's still snowing like crazy out there. I am loving this White Christmas! Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night!