Christmas!!! Christmas day is perhaps my favorite holiday (but I might just say that about every holiday. What can I say, I love to celebrate anything.) It was such a lovely, fun, relaxing, enjoyable day. I'll just let the pictures do the talking because, my my, there are a lot of them (I don't know why I say that, I can't just let the pictures do the talking because I like to talk too much.)
After I heard the kids get up I left poor Magnus downstairs asleep on the couch and went up to join Andy and the kids. Before I let them rip into their stockings I had to take our traditional Christmas morning photo (which is sadly missing M.)
Stockings are my absolute favorite and I am so glad I have Andy who is such a sport and fills mine with such thoughtful things that he knows I want.
Makeup, perfume, candy, mittens, my traditional day planner, leggings, gym socks, pink ipad case.... what more does a gal's stocking need?! He done good.
I truly love watching my kids get so excited about their stocking treasures that Santa has brought for them. It makes my heart so happy.
Ahhhh, a lovely fire was started for ambiance and warmth (I am a sucker for ambiance, down to Christmas music playing in the background and cinnamon roll smells wafting in from the kitchen as they bake in the oven for breakfast.)
We always go youngest to oldest when it comes to opening Santa gifts, but since our youngest was still sleeping we decided to go oldest to youngest. Bear wasn't a fan of that idea and pouted until it was his turn.
Andy received a drill with several different attachments.... a dream gift as he loves tools.
I got my new camera
Laylah didn't ask for much at all this year and what she did ask for came in her stocking. Santa surprised her with a jewelry box containing some new jewelry (since she's always borrowing mine...)
(Check out Bear as he impatiently waits his turn. The kid has an awesome pout.)
Jonah's dream gift of a pogo stick was made a reality. He is so awesome on this thing already.
And I didn't realize until now that I never took a picture of Daphne after she opened her gift. She received a pop-up soccer goal. She didn't ask for much either and what she did ask for was also in her stocking. She is so excited to use her new toy as soon as it warms up a bit.
Finally! Baron's turn! He received his Beyblade arena that he had been wanting.
New clothes, blah blah blah. Laylah is really the only one who gets excited about this. I just always loved wearing new clothes on Christmas, so I always get the kids a new outfit.
Can't you just see the excitement?!
Some other fun things they received:
And finally! The sickie awakens! Magnus joined us at about 9 AM and sleepily asked, "What is everybody doing?!"
He became super excited when we told him it was Christmas and he had a whole load of presents to open. (He had been asking for several weeks when we would get to open the presents under the tree.) We started with his stocking and went from there. He was so cute and fun. I love this age!
Andy got me a new purse that had a prepaid visa inside. Oh boy, that man sure knows the way to my heart!
And Laylah made me this amazing apron. I have been married for 11 1/2 years and have never owned an apron. She must have heard me complaining about that one day and took matters into her own hands. What a sweetheart. (P.S. Laylah did not get glasses. She received these "geek glasses" in her stocking. I was hoping she would let that trend pass by without hopping onto the bandwagon, but alas, that was one of the few things on her short Christmas list so Santa had to come through ;)
After every last gift was opened I finished preparing our Christmas breakfast of cheesy eggs, sausage, bacon, orange juice, hot cocoa, and cinnamon rolls. Divine. The kids had to be dragged away from their fun new things to come and eat and then they were off again while I cleaned up. We all got dressed and were planning on going to a movie but Magnus was still running a fever and neither Andy nor I wanted to stay home with him and miss out. So we promised the kids we would do the movie another day. They happily went back to their toys, movies, and games until it was time to go to Andy's parent's house for Christmas dinner. In fact, I have a photo somewhere (that I'm too lazy to locate and upload) of Daphne playing Magnus' new Memory game with him and while she went to the bathroom for a minute he curled up right there on the floor and fell asleep with Sadie cuddled up next to him. The poor guy was so sick. I was glad we decided to fore-go the movie.
We headed to the Collette household which is always pure chaos. I mean, I don't expect anything less with 2 parents, 7 children (David is on his mission, but he was there on skype!), 5 in-law children, and 19 grandchildren (number 20 is on the way!) We had 4 different kinds of soup, rolls, and salad (I think? My memory is hazy) plus a lot of snacky appetizers. Also, a ton of different desserts to choose from. It was Christmas dinner heaven.
This is the first time we had all been together since before Andy and I moved to VA. It was so much fun to be with everyone. The gift exchange was crazy as seen below.
I was terrible with the camera and after the day was over I realized I had hardly taken any photos. Oh well, there's always next year (that's been my motto lately.)
At least I got the traditional grandkid photo with the jammies grandma makes every year. There are always at least 2 kids crying. What do you know, one of them was my sickie Magnus this year.) I wish I would have taken a photo of the scene behind me (all of the parents trying to get the kids to be happy and smile) (And in case you're wondering, Kathryn is the oldest grandchild and she no longer gets grandma's jammies because grandma only makes them until the kids turn 12 and then they get a different gift. I don't blame her.... can you imagine if she continued to do this until they were married or something?! She's have to start right after the New Year!)
So there's our Christmas Day, it was so amazing and wonderful and I felt so blessed to be with my happy and (mostly) healthy family. I am so thankful for our Savior and the sacrafice he made so we can have such joy on this earth. I feel like my heart might burst sometimes because I just can't believe how good I have it. I am a lucky, lucky girl.
Merry Christmas.
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