The afternoon of the 23rd we packed most of the presents into my truck, and that evening Matt drove them down to his parents house and unleaded them there. On Christmas Eve morning we packed the rest up, wished the dogs a Merry Christmas (and left them with their own Christmas gift - a new bed!) and took off. Our awesome neighbors took care of them while we were gone, so we didn't have to drive up and down the mountain to feed them and let them out.
We dropped the kids off to Matt's family and then the two of us went to our appointment.
Every Christmas Matt's family members each perform some charity in honor of his sister Jamie, who died when she was 13. This year Matt and I gave blood. While it's something we've done many times before, it had a special significance this time. We made our appointment for Christmas Eve, knowing that donations are very low this time of year, and during this week, especially. I hope our blood will make a difference for someone!
After you give blood you have to eat...
So we rewarded ourselves with Carls Jr.
mmmmmmm
I hate most fast food, but Matt introduced me to Carls Jr. this summer, and I have to admit, I crave it. I'm averaging a visit about once every 6 weeks, which I figure is okay.
This time we split a Jalepeno Burger - my favorite :)
The rest of Christmas Eve was spent with the family at Matt's parents house.
We had a Mexican potluck for dinner. Matt and I made Chimichanga's - they were soooo good. Lisa made Cheese Enchilada's that were to-die-for. There was TONS of food, as usual :)
We played a lot of games, and the kids had a blast with their cousins, Sebastian and McKenzie.
That night the kids acted out the Christmas story while Matt's dad read it from the Bible. Tessa was the Virgin Mary, Sebastian was Joseph, Ash was a shepherd, then a wise man, and Kenzie was the angel. The kids were darling.
Tessa read a Christmas book to the little ones after that. She was so cute with them!
Had to share these pictures...
Sandy bought Ryan and L'Jean these hilarious Dr. Suess Christmas pajamas.
They put them on for pictures, then changed back into their clothes, lol.
Christmas morning the kids were up about 6:30 - mine were first, of course! (after all, Sebastian and McKenzie are still adjusting to Utah time!)
The family room was ridiculous - presents everywhere!
We leave one big present out, unwrapped, from Santa. Stockings are from Santa, too. Everything else is wrapped and from mom and dad.
Tessa knows about Santa. She knew last year, too, though we didn't talk about it until after Christmas. Is 6 early for her to know? I don't think so - she's pretty smart. And she was great this year about not talking about it to friends, etc.
Anyway, Tessa's unwrapped gift was the doll armior I made for her. Standing next to the armior was a fake American Girl doll.
Asher's unwrapped gift was a tool bench. The movie, Up, was on top of it. It was supposed to go in his stocking, but wouldn't fit!
The last gift we let Tessa unwrap (it was partially hidden behind the armior!) was her real American Girl doll, Kit. She was so excited!!!
Kit was too expensive for Tessa to play with right now. Tessa doesn't take very good care of her things. I'm aware that part of that is her age - she's still very little! But part of it is also that she's just kind of a destructive kid. And by kind of, I mean incredibly. Only 2 days before Christmas I found a doll outfit in her room that she'd cut up with scissors. This is not unusual. Dolls and barbies often turn up with marker or pen all over them and their clothes are frequently "altered". I've taken away all of her pens, pencils, crayons, markers and scissors multiple times. Every time she earns them back she does naughty things with them again.
To save myself the undue stress and drama of checking Kit for abuse morning, noon and night, we bought a much less expensive knock off for her to play with. She's been warned to take good care of her, too, of course - but if she slips up, at least she won't be destroying a $100 doll.
One day she'll probably be better about taking care of her things - but until then, Kit can hang out on her dresser and oversee things.
Anyway, she LOVES her play doll, and she's very proud of her Kit, so I'm happy with the decision we made.
Back to Christmas day!
The kids played all morning - with plenty of adults around to help them with anything they wanted to do!
We left Matt's parents house just after 2:00 and went to my parents house. There we exchanged gifts with my family and ate dinner.
We gave a Hurley shirt to baby Lucas - which just happened to match one that Ash got for Christmas and was wearing that day, too ;)
Another picture of Baby Lucas, just because he's so cute!
After dinner we decided to jump in the hot tub for a while. We didn't have swimming suits with us, but there are always a few around to borrow. The kids got in wearing their underwear - we had clean ones packed with us from our overnight stay the night before.
Tessa was - as usual - the life of the party. She jumped out of the hot tub and ran around in the snow before getting back in several times. She is so lively and funny! It's almost terrifying to think of her as a teenager...
We got home around 7:00 and both kids were quick to fall asleep.
I hope everyone else had a Merry Christmas, too!
1 comment:
It was fun to see all of the pictures. I feel like I got to "peek" through the window on Christmas morning!
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