The one with Christmas 2012 Style

I almost couldn't believe it was Christmas! You know what else I couldn't believe!?!? That I actually made it to Christmas and we still had most of the presents left to open. I am terrible at Christmas. I get WAY too excited to see my kiddos happy and always end up breaking and letting them open everything a week or so early. This year, I actually made it . . . . it probably helped that we had an emergency surgery and a birthday party to plan.

For the first time in our marriage though, we MADE IT! And I don't think we will have a problem making it from now on. I LOVED seeing my kiddos so excited to come down Christmas morning. It was a super late night getting everything ready for Santa to come, and then a super early morning getting up early enough to make it to my parents, but it's Christmas . . . and that's what the fun is all about!

 

The living room after everything was set up. We actually had to wait this year until the kids were asleep to do anything. They are finally getting old enough to understand the concept of Santa Claus and were excited for him to come.

All of Preslie's loot. She got a ton of Minnie stuff! A huge minnie the same size as she is, a Minnie pillow pet, a regular sized Minnie to replace the one she has had since Disneyland that is disgustingly dirty (though she still won't let me get rid of it) a big Lalaloopsy doll, a Minnie's Bowtique shopping cart, blocks, and a Minnie suitcase. There was other stuff too, I just can't really remember it.

Parker was really wanting a razor scooter . . . so he got one. But sadly this is the first year in forever that Idaho has decided to get DUMPED ON with snow! He hasn't even really been able to ride it yet . . . sad day. He also got the full workup of Ninja Turtles - all the turtles, all the bad guys, all the gadgets . . . all the mess! I'm not sure if Parker or Eric was more excited for this. He also got a Wii that he has to share with his sister. The kids each got their own suitcases too . . . it would have been more exciting if the bags were packed with clothes and we were like "And now we are going to Disneyland!" But I didn't think about that until afterwards  . . . . so maybe that's a good idea for next year.

Paxton . . . . that little one year old is hard to shop for. He mostly got clothes, and a couple of new toys. We try to spend the same amount on each of the kids, but I'll be hoens, we fell a little short with Pax. I don't think he'll ever notice. Eric and I are literally swimming in toys! And they get all over the house, and to be put away in the closet and fit they have to be put away just right (which may actually be a symptom of my obsessive need for a clean house). We had also just taken three garbage bags full of toys to DI, the last thing we wanted to do was spend more money on more toys that would be hauled away within a few months. So he got clothes. And some fun toys. And candy. And a suitcase. Luckily he is one so he cared more about eating the wrapping paper than he did about what was in the paper.

Our main present to us was a new 60" TV. We rarely ever go to movies, we always rent a movie on Vudu or from Redbox, and we have been trying to watch more movies as a family so we figured we may as well have a TV big enough to watch together and big enough to make fun. Eric was wanting the 80" Sharp. I convinced him it would overpower the room. Then he was pretty stuck on the 70" Sharp, but when he went in to Costco randomly a week before Black Friday and they had this incredible deal on a 60" he gave up the idea. I think it's better anyways. Our current room is too small for a bigger TV. 

Pax was the only one we didn't have to wake up for Christmas morning.

I debated whether or not to put this picture on here, but decided the kids looked too darned cute not to. Just ignore my crazy just woke up hair and look at them.

Parker was pretty excited that he could tell Santa had come. Santa drank all of the milk Parker left but tapped out halfway into the fourth cookie he gave him.

Apparently a scooter would have been a good plan for Pax too.

Preslie was pretty stoked about her totally Minnie christmas!

We always go over to my parent's house (when we are in town) to open up presents there. For as long as I can remember we have to take turns in order of who is youngest, only opening one present at a time and continuing until everyone has opened all their presents. When I was little, this wasn't so hard. My brother, my other brother, me, my sister, mom and then dad. It took forever since we were pretty spoiled, but we had fun. Now it is just insanity!!! My sister has three kids of her own (currently pregnant with her 4th) and she was fostering two little girls at th time, a 3 year old, and a 15month old. Plus now you have our three kids. This is what Christmas morning looked like there! Needless to say it took us about 5 hours to get through everyone's presents and get everything cleaned up. I got a ton of cute pictures of this event BUT we aren't allowed to put pictures of the foster girls up on the internet so I can't share. :)

We had an awesome Christmas! It is getting so fun to experience these holidays now that our little ones are getting old enough to have fun with them! While on the one hand I can't wait until next Christmas, I also don't want them growing up so fast . . . so Christmas can wait a little while!