The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

A little late posting about the holidays...but better late then never, right?

The kids love opening a present on Christmas Eve every year. Of course they were expecting pajamas, but I tricked them this year and got them new bathrobes. Zach was the most excited about his. He'd tell you it's his most favorite gift he got this year. Before they went to bed we had to put out carrots for the reindeer and cookies for Santa.





I love Christmas morning...still wondering when our kids are going to wake up before us though. Matthew's 10 and still doesn't wake up on his own. We usually have to go into their rooms yelling Santa came, Santa came...crazy! I think they all got what they asked for except Zach, he was really holding out hope on a dog. It didn't help that Ellie got a Fur Real cat that kept purring and making noises wrapped up under the tree. Zach thought it was his dog :( Matthew's so excited about the cell phone he got. He doesn't realize that it's for Mom's convenience not his :) Santa came through and brought Gracie her princess bike. It was so cute to see how her face lit up when she saw it....that's the magic of Christmas that I can never get enough of!









I'm sad to say that Gracie was the only one who got to sit on Santa's lap this year. We took her when the rest of the kids were at school because I was trying to avoid the long lines. Santa's helper got mad at Josh for taking this picture They wanted us to pay for one of theirs. Yes, we're cheap! Gracie asked Santa for a princess bike. He thought she said a Christmas bike and repeated that back to her. She said, "No, I said a princess bike not a Christmas bike." Leave it to my fiery read head to get short with Santa Claus :o)




We usually try to get up town to see the Christmas lights but decided to try something new this year. For family night we took the kids up to the Christmas sing-a-long at the ESA. We rode up on tracks, (which is an experience in itself ;o) and than had a free night of singing Christams songs, being entertained by the piano player Jon Schmidt, (the kids LOVED this guy) and shopping for the gift of the person in the family whose name we picked. I think this one will be a tradition in the years to come for sure. We all had a wonderful time!!!!








Devin and Vanessa put on a great Christmas party this year. The theme came from the movies "The Christmas Story," and "The Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." Both are family favorites! We all wore our "Ugly" Christmas sweaters. It was a fun night!!!


Devin made up his own games that themed both movies. One was a hit and on the other one, we all decided that our little bro's got WAY TOO much time on his hands. He took the game Mad Gab and made his own version of jumbled up Christmas words. We weren't getting it. The winners got to drink eggnog from Clark's moose-head cups :o)


Mom and Lynette (Vanessa's Mom) Notice the lamp from The Christmas Story in the background...love it!







Phil and I took home the prizes for the best "ugliest" get-ups. From these pictures below, I'm sure you can see why :o) I was going for the 80's look....and yes those are red Ranglers, aren't I hot???? LOL



Phil was sporting a woman's sweater vest with red turtle neck. It was a great party! Thanks guys for the fun night!