The kids slept in until almost 7:00am. We kept them in their bedroom until all teeth were brushed and I had put a little paint on the old barn. This is what our living room looked like before the fun began!
Alyssa was the first one into the livingroom! She wanted a Barbie swimming pool and Orbee-thingie for Christmas. Santa knew how wonderful she had been and she got both of those things, along with a hot hue Barbie, clothes, underwear, socks, a cute hat and the game, "Spot it."
Next came our Austin, with his one, front permanent tooth! He had hoped for the following: Lego set, guitar, and a basketball hoop. Santa gave him a lego set, sketch pads, the game RUSH HOUR, socks and an angry birds winter hat. Mom and Dad surprised him with a beautiful, black guitar and lessons with Max Hanson beginning in January! Throughout the entire day, he thanked me again and again for the guitar. I'm so excited for him!
Third to be allowed entry into the living room was Carson! Carson is hilarious every Christmas! He sees the one thing he really wants and just fixates on that item with less interest in the other, less-priority items. Carson loves the HOBBIT and got a cool book and the full set of LORD OF THE RINGS dvds with all the extras one could ever dream of!
JAXSON AND TAYLOR hugged their way down the hallway (because I could have just one kid left as "last" on Christmas morning) and ran to their gifts! Jaxson wasn't too thrilled with his gifts from Santa (he even whispered to me that it was his worst year of Santa gifts ever) because he got a Snap Circuit Set, Drawing pads and Spiral kit, the game UNO GRAB and a very cool monster hat! Mom and Dad gave him some clothes and his favorite gift of all: a cotton candy maker! He is already planning on when to start selling cotton candy to make some money. hee hee
Taylor got some new binders and organizers for school, headbands, clothes, scarf, the game TELESTRATIONS and The Sound Of Music dvd. She got a bunch of new clothes she is crazy about and her big gift from us is a.......sewing machine! Grandma Barbie is going to do sewing lessons with her. I am very excited about this gift and hope it will become a life-long talent which will bring her much joy. And having lessons from Grandma will be priceless! Those are memories that carry on forever.
(It just dawned on me that Dave and I have only our Santa stockings to show for the Christmas morning! That is okay and kind of normal for us. For the past two years, we have donated our gift money to people in need and this year, we are kicking out our basement so neither of us was interested in gifts other than finishing that 2250 sq foot project!)
It was a wonderful Christmas morning, filled with love and joy in our family! Grandma and Poppie came over for a while. We were lazy throughout the day and ended it over at Grandma and Poppie's house for leftovers and a game night.
Our family has been very blessed, not necessarily from the things we received for we did have a nice Christmas, but from the experience we had as a family throughout the holiday to grow closer to the Savior, feel the spirit of His love and understand just little deeper what His life, death and resurrection mean to all mankind. Yes, it has been another beautiful Christmas holiday. Merry Christmas!
