So our Christmas Eve was great! Nothing too spectacular, but very pleasant! We were surprised with two tiny little pearly whites in sweet little Sadie's mouth and while I hate taking pictures of good babies when they're crying (it's okay to take crying pictures of babies who cry a lot- that's what they do, but good babies--- I like to pretend like they were never crying, so no pictures :). Just kidding), but this kind of demonstrates how she had been feeling for the past couple days. Possibly what was bothering her on miracle night. But either way- my sweet little five month old is cutting teeth already! Shouldn't surprise us with how much drooling this little one does, but I was still a little surprised! And bummed. Teeth means growing up and possibly more pain while nursing, so here we go :). I do think they look pretty cute though.
Got our groceries, went over to the church with the Maughans to get out some of our Christmas excitement wiggles :). Then we cleaned up the house a little, getting it "Spotless" for Santa to come. And then it was time to go talk to Santa at Nate's work! Kind of a bummer for Nate to have to spend the day there and then go back during his time off, but so fun that he makes that sacrifice for all of us so that we can go talk to Santa.
It was fun this year. We went oldest to youngest again. With Charity he talked about her great job with her schooling and scholarship and everything and her madrigals. She asked Santa to surprise her. Kelly it was lacrosse and something else? (guess I should have documented all of this sooner, sorry Kelz) She asked Santa to surprise her as well. Bradley it was his sports and cross country. I think this is when he made the joke about playing basketball with the elves... kinda funny. Bradley asked for a Jazz hoodie. Luke... I can't remember- I will have to ask him! Sorry, Luke. My memory is horrible right now with this sleep deprivation. He asked for Santa to surprise him as well. With Noah it was Peter Pan and he asked for him to surprise him as well. Erika he talked about her being a lost boy and she asked to be surprised. Jack he talked about basketball and how good he's been at taking the trash out and Jack asked for legos. And this was the first time we've been able to get Molly to talk- she talked about taking care of Sadie and asked for him to surprise her ;). It was a lot of fun. I love how much the kids love to see Nate's work too. Especially the older ones who have talked to Santa a lot and don't get as excited about that- they are genuinely interested in what Nate does.
We got done early and grandpa wasn't expecting us for another hour, so we went back home to tidy up just a little more and grab the camera.
Once at grandpa's the partying began. We had a blast at grandpa's! I must admit I was not feeling too good and was super nervous about the evening to follow. I had finished wrapping MOST of the gifts over the past week, but there was enough to do that I was, not dreading it, but anticipating a long night. Which was hard considering how I was feeling. But like I said, we had a blast! We ate tons and tons of food! But not all of it, of course, we had tons leftover too. Then after a few moments of awkward silence and then small people asking when we get to open presents- the present-opening began:
Sadie got a cute crib toy like I'd been searching for! I didn't even tell grandpa this one! Maybe he is Santa Claus!
She's looking at it- must like it!
Molly got a little mermaid baby and a Frozen 3D puzzle, which I have to laugh looking at this picture because Kelly was the one who ended up helping her with it and I use the words "helping her" lightly- they were only on it together for a short time before Molly realized it was way over her head. She kinda ditched Kelly with it and after a couple hours Kelly was able to declare the thing done, but WHEW! Not so much for little kids as we thought :). It did look super cool when she got it done. Kelly is so nice to "help".
Jack got legos! Just like he had wanted from Santa! Pretty awesome!
Erika got some Calico Critters! And a cute Treehouse for them! This was a big surprise and she LOVED them! Pretty cool.
Noah got a 7x7 rubiks cube. He got pretty far on it over the Christmas break, but I don't think he's finished it quite yet.
Luke got a really fancy set of fidget toys. It's from grandpa so you know it's the best of the best and hardest toys on the planet- I think Luke was looking up the solving video on YouTube before the night was over.
Brad got a Jazz hoodie, just like he wanted! See what I mean- I think Grandpa might be Santa!
Brad and Molly have become pretty close these days! He's SOOOO good to her! It's crazy how much patience he has and how fun he can be! Cool big brother- I hope she appreciates that some day.
He's trying not to look too disappointed since it's way too small. Grandpa asked me what size and then picked his own size :). Silly Grandpa. But it all worked out- we just gave this one to Luke and got Brad a new one!
Kelly got the note taking Book of Mormon she had had on her list :).
Charity got a Jazz blanket and a Jazz bear pillow pet! Doesn't get better than that.
I didn't even mention that Steve was there! Livening the place up of course! What would Christmas Eve be without Steve? I don't want to know! He opened our gift first- we gave him two- this one was the blanket- because he wanted one :). And then the thoughtful gift:
The toy that crawls faster the louder you yell at it! HA! So funny. Only for Steve.
And we gave Grandpa the gift we got for him- a UofU blanket! I think he likes it.
Also, some pistachios and then Kelly for the first time gave him a gift from just her! Very cool! It was a back-scratcher- I thought that was pretty sweet of her! I remember when I started giving a gift to Nana from me on Christmas Eve. Made me feel a little less like a spoiled brat when I opened her gift to me :).
After presents and some more visiting- Nate had to go to work. This was sad. I was really hoping he might surprise me with telling me he didn't have to work the mid afterall! But no. He did. I felt as bad for him as I did for myself :). But we hugged him and he was off.
After some more visiting and part of a movie (can't remember which one- maybe Frozen?) we headed out. Took a few loads of leftovers and gifts to get us all out to the car, but we made it! I was SO RELIEVED when I realized the snow had stopped and wasn't near as bad as I was anticipating watching it come down. The driveway still felt like a death-defying act, but once we got off Skyline Drive the roads were clear! So it was a nice, normal drive home, just looking for Rudolph and Santa's sleigh in the sky. It was super cloudy though, I'm not sure we saw him.
We got home and hurried and opened jammies and took our pictures! I really messed up on pajamas this year- got a few that were way too small. Bummed me out! Not sure what I was thinking. Maybe just an off year with their sizes- I don't know. Next year I will do better!
And then we prayed and hurried off to bed! Sadie and I spent the entire evening together. Wrapping, nursing, watching movies to pass the nursing time more patiently, and wrapping some more. I think I got to sleep around 3:30. That was better than past Christmases. I wish I'd been less optimistic about how much I had to wrap still... it was a lot more than I had thought. But oh well! That's part of the fun! And I enjoyed it! I love spoiling my kids a little on Christmas. They deserve it!
Christmas morning came quickly! I was awakened by Luke, patiently asking if I want to come downstairs and do stockings. To which I replied that we needed to wait for Nate to come home and then got Luke's quick reply, "He is home!" Couldn't believe it was already 7:30!!! Felt like I'd only been asleep for a few minutes! Took me quite a while to wake up! We did stockings which is fun- our kids are so cute about our traditions- I just love it! Then we made Creamed Eggs on Toast- which everyone helped with! Then ate and talked about what they love about me :). Gotta love that!
Then it was on to presents! Santa's gifts first! We always go youngest to oldest!
Jack got the I Survived books he had asked for PLUS two other really cool picture books! How did Santa know he's been way into those kinds of things lately! Such a cool surprise!
In Erika's letter to Santa she had asked for a bell from Dasher and how many elves he has- which he answered that question on the phone the night before- there are 743- but she also got one of Dasher's bells! Look at it, it's like all rusted from the wet! Pretty cool! Along with the bell was a giant box of Cheddar Pretzels! Her favorite! I think she said there were 19 bags in there! Plus a few cheddar chex mixes! Pretty awesome!
Luke got a fitbit! This was pretty exciting as you can see! Santa surprised him! I think Nate was almost just as excited- now they can compete on steps and stuff :). It has been fun to see Luke checking on his sleep score and wanting to get a better score- pretty fun. Plus I've never seen him running our stairs the way he has this week! Pretty cute.
Bradley got a new fishing bag packed with fishing stuff! Just like he wanted!
Not sure why, but I didn't get a picture of Charity opening her Jazz tickets from Santa! :( how sad!! Probably feeding Sadie-- that was kind of the theme of the day :). Super hungry ALL DAY. Sorry, Charity! But she did get Jazz tickets- as per her request.
So then we moved on to Family gifts. We did it a little differently this time, I think, we went youngest to oldest GIVING the gifts we made. So Molly gave her gift to Noah first.
She gave him a gift of her own inventing! How appropriate since she had Noah. She had found a mug with a basketball hoop attached. So you can shoot marshmallows in the hoop and into your hot cocoa... it was super cute, but ceramic, so not super doable, but we got creative and found a way to create the gift SHE WANTED TO GIVE HIM!! She loved how it turned out and I think Noah even liked it too! She gave it to him with some cereal and marshmallows for hot cocoa.
Jack had Charity. He had wanted to write her a nice letter and frame that and was going to draw the Jazz logo around the letter, but when it came time to writing it, he was no longer in the mood. But he did do an amazing job on the Jazz logo and with the nice frame will make a nice decoration in Charity's bedroom! I was proud of what he did- I just wanted to remember his thoughtfulness about the letter- maybe someday he will get around to that letter :).
Erika had Nate- she always puts so much thought into her gifts! This one took many hours of work as usual. She had found a cool little ring of tiny pages and decided to write things she loves about Nate, some funny jokes, and quotes, and then some memories and pictures on all the pages. It ended up so cute! I was so proud of her effort and hard work! I am certain this was meaningful to Nate. He loves sentimental things like this!
Noah had Kelly and had put a lot of thought and work into his gift as well! This was cool because Kelly was the one to teach him how to use her tablet so that he could draw digital pictures and put them together to make a book! And on top of that, the book was about some bears testing berries just like when Kelly and Noah tested fries at fast food places :). It was super cute! I think my favorite page was the About the Author page. I wish I'd gotten a picture of the cover. Such a cute idea! She loved it of course!
Luke had Bradley. He made him a frame with magnet around it so that he can attach his fishing lures to it! So cool! We were bummed the lures we'd bought didn't exactly stick, but with the picture of Brad and that huge fish in the frame- you can't really go wrong :).
Bradley had Luke and he found a cool idea to make him a brain game with some metal light switch plates! But he didn't just make the game, he painstakingly painted the switch plates to look really cool! I was super impressed with his artistic abilities! They looked really cool! And Luke really liked them- even though he looks funny in this picture :).
Sadie had Molly (we must have skipped Sadie because she was asleep or something :) ). She (actually I) made a cute little ABC book using mostly pictures of Molly and Sadie ;). It's called Molly's ABC's. It turned out so cute!! I love it! I need to make more of these in the future- they're way fun. And Molly of course loves it!
I had Jack and I made him a rubber band gun out of a candy cane full of hershey kisses :). It's pretty cool if I do say so myself. And I think Jack loved it!
Nate had Erika. He had spent the past few weeks working on his gift. A drawing of a beautiful bird!! She loved it!
Here's Sadie opening the gift Kelly made her. A cute wall hanging that says, "She leaves a sparkle wherever she goes" So appropriate :). Now we'll never forget her 1st name, Sparkle :).
It was a lovely Christmas Day! Couldn't have asked for more. My dad came over later with a Baskin Robins ice cream cake so Nate put the Dairy Queen one he'd gotten on hold- so polite- and we had my dad's cake for dessert.
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