The Dearest Day in all the Year!

Christmas Morning:

I always try to set up the video camera the night before so that we can capture all the fun of Christmas Morning, and that's all well and good, but I have to get pictures too, in case we never get around to watching the videos :).  

This Christmas was a lot of fun for me for some reason!  Christmas with kids is just perfect, and as my kids get older, it just seems more and more fun!  To spoil them, see their faces as they open presents, watch them get excited for each other, and see the pleasure they feel from giving something to someone else.  It's all just a Mommy's dream come true.  

One of our traditions is that once everyone is awake, we can open up our Stockings.  This is the pre-breakfast fun!  The kids all got lots of goodies in their stockings, and SO DID I!!!  He spoiled me this year too!  

Then Nate spoiled us all with a delicious eggs and bacon breakfast!!  Perfect!  He and the kids always surprise me with a birthday present as we eat breakfast.  So sweet.  Charity gave me the one from her first.  She had spent her last $20 on my present!  Do I feel priveleged?  Absolutely.  It was the Disney Headbandz game!!!  Very cute!  We've played it tons already.  And from Nate and the rest of the fam I got my beloved Kindle Fire.  I L-O-V-E it!!!!  So fun, so useful!!  I think I'm finally learning how to use some self-control though and I am not AS addicted to it as I was a week ago.  

Once breakfast was done, we tried waking Heidi up one more time.... with no success, and then proceeded into the living room for PRESENT TIME!!!!

So we always start with the big gift from Santa, and we go youngest to oldest.

Erika was THRILLED about the whole Santa and gifts thing this year!!  It was so cute to watch her get excited about it with the big kids.  I don't remember any of our other 2 year olds getting it so young!  Maybe it's just my memory.  But she was so happy when she opened up her Baby Bed!!!  She had been wanting a baby doll bed all month!  Santa had given her just what she wanted!!  So cool!

Noah was excited as well!  He was beyond ecstatic with his gift from Santa!  He got Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Spider Man, and Iron Man!  All in one box!!!  So cool!  Good job Santa!  He played with them quite a bit the entire day!

Luke couldn't wait to open his, it was one of the biggest gifts under the tree.  And it was his RACE TRACK!!!  A pretty cool one too!!  He and Nate set it up later on in the day and it really was fun to play with!!  For all of us!

you can tell he loves it :)

Bradley got his awesome little Claw Machine.  I couldn't believe it actually worked!  There was no way I was going to buy him one of those, so I'm glad Santa did!  And luckily everyone was willing to donate some candy to the cause.  He had plenty to fish for!

Kelly was pleasantly surprised with her gift from Santa as well.  She got a Doll that looks a lot like an American Girl doll, but she's not breakable, and posebale!  We were happy about that!  She looked just like Kelly (before Kelly cut her hair!!) with cute pigtails!  

Charity was very surprised, and I think very pleased with her gift from Santa.  He got her a Kindle!  I'm assuming he knew how much she likes to read.  The perfect gift for Charity of course.  We're still working on loading books on to it!  But I think she liked it.

After the Santa gifts we usually do the name drawing gifts to each other:

Erika had Luke- she got him a Mario Poster for his room.  He loved it!

Noah had Nate- he picked out a remote control airplane (it was a tough decision between that and a transformer, but I think he made a wise decision :) )

Luke had Me and actually hasn't been able to get it yet.... I'll keep you posted :)  Nate said he had something particular in mind though.  So cute!

Bradley had Noah- he got Noah a shield and daggar of Thor's.  This happens to be Noah's "favorite present this year"  So way to go Bradley!

Kelly had Erika- she got her a teddy bear :)  Erika gave it a big kiss and hug when she opened it and needed to hold it anytime she got sad that day.... adorable!

Charity had Kelly- she got her a sketch pad, colored pencils, and some sticky notes.  She has treasured this gift.

I had Bradley- I got him a sketch pad and erasable colored pencils.  I think he liked it :)  I KNOW he loved the pencils, because he's been wanting those for a while.

Nate had Charity- he surprised her with the little "Cookie Puppy" that she had been oohing and ahhing over in the store.  It walks, barks, pretty cute.

I love the present giving within the family.  The kids all spent their own money (those who are old enough to have it), they all put SO much thought and love into their gifts, and they were all SO excited to give them.  I LOVE that my kids know the pleasure of receiving AND the pleasure of giving now!!  It's important to me that they enjoy that.  I don't think I really ever learned how to give until I was much older.  It really is a good quality in my mind.  I remember the first time I received a gift from a friend who had gone WAY out of her way to locate a game that had been out of print and was not easy to find.  And actually that same year, my other friend (yes, I only had two :) ) did the same thing with a different game I had always looked for when we were at the store.  It meant SO much to me to know that they had put so much thought into the gift and gone so out of their way.  It occurred ot me that that is what made it such a great gift!  The thought really did count for a LOT!  So I've tried to teach my kids that it is important to THINK, and put as much thought into our gifts as we can.  Makes it even more fun too!

After we opened some of the presents, we woke up Heidi again, and she finally joined us :)  The kids were so excited to have her here.  It was a lot of fun to share our Christmas with her.  

The man of the hour!!!  Well... the man of all of MY hours :)  I love him so much!! I love how happy he is to make Christmas so fun for me and the kids, not just with gifts, but with his cheerfulness, and his service.  He is a good man.  I loved spoiling him a little this year too.... though I never seem to do enough to make myself feel like I've done him justice.  I can't wait to break out his fire pit though!!!  That's gonna be so fun!

So after presents, and playing with a few toys and games, we hurried and jumped into our Sunday clothes.  It was tough, and felt really awkward, but we did it!  I was proud of us for going, even though we were a few minutes late!  I loved the meeting.  We were combined with one other ward in our Stake, so we were WAY in the back, but that was okay.  Our Bishop and first counselor and thier Bishop and first Counselor spoke about their favorite Christmas hymns and then we sang them.  I love music.  Our Bishop did a little impromptu Choir performance and asked all the choir members from both wards to come up and sing "Angels We Have Heard On High".  I thought it sounded beautiful and I got chills as we were singing!  It was really neat to be able to spend an hour and a half at church on the day we celebrate our Savior's birth.  That's got to mean a lot to Him.  It meant a lot to me.  And the kids did great!  Maybe because Heidi was there too :) 

 After Church we pulled out all the stops and opened, set up, hooked up, and played with EVERY single present (it felt like anyway) that we had received!  The house was a complete disaster area :)  I loved it!!!  

Brent and Sarah came to see Heidi and spoiled me with some Reese's and a chocolate orange!  They stayed for a while, even though our house was a completely un-kid-proofed mess.  It's always fun to have family over on Christmas.  And nice when we can just stay home and enjoy the company here.  I hate driving all over on Christmas.  Someday I know, I need to get over that.... just not now.

The rest of the day is a bit of a blur!  Nate made a delicious Ham and potatoes dinner.  He always manages to spoil me and the kids on Christmas.  He had a yummy ice cream cake for my birthday that we broke out when Grandpa Hatch and Pam came to visit.  It was a really nice day altogether.  And aside from the tired headache I got around 3:00, I loved it all!!

 

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve

The day before Christmas was an interesting one.  I'm gonna go out on a limb and just say, it wasn't my favorite.  But they can't all be right?  It started out bright and early with a drive out to Nate's work to take him so that we could have the car all day.  Yes, Nate had to work.... boo!  He had his 7:00-3:00 shift.  Kind of a bummer considering the Maynes Family Christmas Party was scheduled for that morning.  

So I got home and prepared our breakfast casserole that we were asked to bring to the party, got the kids ready to go, and headed on out.  We were leaving the house about 20 minutes later than I had planned, at 9:20, but I thought we'd still be able to get there around the 10:00 starting time.  We called Nate's Mom on the way to reassure her that we would be coming, but might be 10 or 15 minutes late, but not to worry.  You can imagine my surprise when Charity hung up and announced that they were already saying the blessing on the food!!!  WHAT?!!!!  

So the party was supposed to start at 10:00, not 9:00.  Lame.  I was ticked.  And flustered at the same time, since we were bringing a major part of the breakfast.  We got there around 10:00 (yeah, lame again), hurried and stuffed some of the leftover food into our faces, and then played a few games.  The party itself was a lot of fun.  No complaints.  They always manage to make it a good time for everyone!  

They had a craft activity where we all made ornaments.  Thankfully Jen took Erika under her wing, got her engaged, and they had a good time together.  Noah and Erika had been inseparable from me from the moment we walked in the door.  This made maneuvering through the tables and chairs almost impossible and REALLY aggravating.  I'm not sure why they were like that.  Morning?  Tired?  Lots of people.... I don't know.  It's just annoying.

The kids got to play the candybar game.  Everyone has fun with that.  And then we assembled the care packages for all of the people Grandma and Grandpa are missionaries to.  That was a lot of fun too.  

I do wish we'd been in a better position to go with them to deliver, but I just wasn't feeling it that day.  I was so aggitated.  We did have lots of other places we needed to be as well.

So after the Maynes Party, we came home, cleaned up a little, wrapped a few presents, and rested up for our next adventure.  

At 3:30 we were to meet Daddy at his work to talk with Santa Claus as he flew through the air.  This is a privilege not many people get to have.  Only those related to Air Traffic Controllers!  It was a lot of fun this year to hear what he said to the kids and to share it all with Aunt Heidi!  She got the grand tour of Nate's facility, and then got to listen to the kids talk to Santa.  I try to remember it all and document it:

Charity- he teased her a little about liking "hm-hm" and told her to stay away from boys for a few more years :).  Then he asked her what she wanted, she said a Dog, and he seemed to be avoiding that question :)

Kelly- He praised her for winning her class spelling bee.  Then told her to tell her friends Naomi and Trisha Hello.  Then asked her what she wanted.  She said a Leopard Coat, and he again, changed the subject.  Then he reminded her that she should go to bed early that night so that Santa could come.

Bradley- He praised him for his good Soccer playing at recess.  Asked him what he wanted and he "didn't know".  Then Santa reminded him that if he didn't listen to his Mom, he wouldn't get any presents at Christmas.

Luke- He congratulated him for his reading.  Then he reminded him to invite his brothers to play with him a lot.  Then he asked Luke what he wanted for Christmas and Luke said, "Race Car Track"

Noah- He didn't say a lot to Noah, but he did wish him a Merry Christmas.  That was cute.

Erika- She wouldn't say much.  So he just congratulated her for learning to use the potty, and told her Merry Christmas.

Such a fun tradition.  I'm so glad our kids get to do that!  And that Heidi was able to participate this year!

After Daddy's work, we RACED (And I mean FAST!) up to Grandpa Hatch's house for our annual Christmas Eve Party at his house!  That's always a lot of fun.  Grandpa spoils us all with gifts and we get to open them and play with them, while stuffing our faces with food.  Lots of fun.  This year he spoiled me EXTRA for some reason!!  I was so happy though!  I am now the proud owner of my own KitchenAid mixer!!!  YAY!!!!  He got me lots of other great stuff too!  IT was a productive Christmas Eve if you ask me :)  HA!  I'm kidding people.  The kids all enjoyed their gifts as well.  

We hurried home, opened our Jammies, set out some food on our Santa plate, left him a cup of milk and some carrots for the reindeer, and then quickly got in bed!  I was amazed at how quickly they went.  And Kelly decided she was going to take her 10 minutes the next day instead of staying up on Christmas Eve.  Funny girl.  I'm sure Santa was grateful for that.

Heidi spent the night, so she, Nate and I all had a good time chatting it up all evening.  Unfortunately I forced her to sleep on the air mattress instead of the couch (for her supposed comfort) only to find out that in the night she had had to move to the uncomfortable couch because the air mattress had completely deflated!!  Stupid mattress!  Fun Christmas Eve though!!!  

Candlelight Christmas

Friday night, we took the opportunity to go up to the This Is The Place using our gift (Family Passes) from Chris and Stephanie.  They sure did a good job giving us the Pioneer Christmas experience.  It was FREEZING cold outside, so we had to get all bundled up!  And for the first time in a while our kids all had good, warm, matching even! clothes to stay at a relatively comfortable temperature!  It also helped that we could go into the little buildings along the way.  We heard the story of how hanging stockings on the mantle came to be, we saw an elf village, looked at the lights, made a poinsettia craft, a snowflake craft, saw how they made popcorn over an open fire, listened to the beautiful music of the carolers, sat on Father Christmas's lap, AND (the most important part) rode on the "train"!!!  It was a very fun-filled evening!

The kids got to write their names on the Naughty or Nice lists.  

Erika LOVED the train!!  She kept announcing that she was riding backwards and that she was "totally freaking out about it!"  So funny.

I'm pretty sure we could have JUST ridden on the train and they would have been completely satisfied with that :)  Funny kids.  I love how easy they are to please!

Our kids know that the Santas we see in town before Christmas are not the REAL Santa.  So when they have the opportunity to sit on his lap, they are a little weirded out.  Bradley for example "didn't know" what he wanted for Christmas and was not going to decide right there.  Father Christmas talked to him for a very long time.  I'm sure everyone in the huge line was annoyed :).

Erika ran up to him like she knew the guy!  So cute!  She didn't really talk though.  She may have mentioned that she wanted a baby bed, not sure though.

Lukey seemed shy as well.  I don't know what he told him he wanted.  But it's pretty cool that we got him to sit on his lap at all.

Kelly was shy too :).  

Cherry too.

 

Noah would not sit on his lap.  This was as close as he would get.  He told Santa he wanted "Optimus Prime and Bumblebee".  I'm surprised he said anything at all :).

This Father Christmas looked so good!  Reminded me of the Father Christmas my Grandma Mottishaw painted MANY years ago.  She always had it on her mantle at Christmastime.  Looked just like him......

It was a lot of fun, something I'd love to do again next year.

Gingerbread Houses

On Friday, the 23rd we did our Gingerbread houses.  We had been waiting to do them with Daddy, but this was the last day possible and Bradley was SET on doing them a second time this year since our post-Thanksgiving dinner ones didn't really work out.
Luckily we had some Halloween Haunted House kits that Kelly had won in her school class, still leftover, so we were able to use a lot of the candies, frosting and most importantly, the houses for that.  I was really impressed with the frosting I made, it held things REALLY well!!  I was amazed.  I believe this was the recipe:
1 lb powdered sugar
3 egg whites
1/2 tsp. of cream of tartar
Mix it all together and there ya have it.

I know that the egg whites make it "not okay to taste" but it sure helped with the quick drying and the holding things together.

Charity was not interested in this activity for some reason, so she opted out.

Erika had a blast!  I put her house together and then frosted a bunch of spaces, including the "door" that she wanted.  And she put all the candies on.  She really sat there and enjoyed most of this activity.  I was impressed.  Her jammies really went with the Halloween theme we had going on too ;).

Luke had a good time too!  I did the house part but he did most of the rest and even went a little crazy with the purple frosting.  It was fun that we had enough cake bags and tips for everyone.  They really know how to use them now!

Kelly had fun too!  She put hers together on her own and decorated it herself.  I was impressed!  She got tired of me joking about our "Halloween Houses" since they were her kits, but I thought it was fun anyway :)

Even Noah had a good time with this one!  He made a cute little sidewalk around his with the SweeTarts.  (we found some of the Valentine's candy we had had leftover from the parties last February.... they were just all around Holiday houses :) )

Look at my handsome Bradley!  He had a lot of fun and used mostly Halloween things... funny kid.  The bats were a nice touch.

Bradley's finished project.

Kelly's.  I love the marshmallow snowman.

This is Luke's.

Noah's

And Erika's.  I think hers looks like it's winking ;).  Too bad I didn't get the other side.  It had her "door" and all on her own, she had put a red lifesaver on the top of the door, looked like a wreath.  So cute.

This was a lot of fun and actually not too much trouble.  I think I prefer to do these on our own, at our house.  Not that it matters.