Christmas Day!

Welcome to Christmas Morning!

These are the unwrapped (Santa) gifts.

The only thing Lyssa asked for was a pair of moccasin flats which were $14 at Payless. Didn't seem like much of a Santa gift so we surprised her with the Kindle Fire. She was beyond pleasantly surprised. Don't worry, it has all kinds of parental locks on it.

 
Alex was easy, because for months he talked about NOTHING but The Lego Ninjago Epic Dragon Battle set.


Chloe was tough because we couldn't find real pixie dust or real fairy wings, but our friends have one of these Ezy Roller bikes and she thought it was fun so we decided to take a chance and get her one. Thankfully, she was happy with it.
 

And Bernie...yes, we bought for Bernie. We are those people. One of his rawhide candy canes kept him out of the way the whole time we had Christmas morning.



 Mom and Dad's stockings. I got two more years (2009 and 2010) worth of blogs printed but they didn't get here til the day after Christmas so Seth had to print the covers to put out on Christmas. Each year had to be split in to two volumes. It was about 1600 pages total AND we still have two more years to print. So, for those who have told me to write a book...I have.

And I got Seth tickets to the Kenny Chesney/ Eric Church concert. I was pretty proud of myself because I can never think of what to get him but I know he has always wanted to see Kenny Chesney and his favorite song this year was Springsteen by Eric Church so when I saw that they were doing a show together I knew I finally had a good gift idea.
 
And now on to just a few of the many non-Santa gifts.
Six Flags passes from my mom and Glenn for the 3rd year now. Woo Hoo!

Chloe with her Little People princess castle from us...she may be a little too old for LP but these were the Disney princesses and she wanted it so why not?
 
Alex was shocked when he got a 2nd 1000 piece Lego set from us. It was $50 off the regular price so we had to go for it.

Alyssa recently passed level 2 of ice skating. It was her second time testing and she was so proud to pass this time. Her silly mom didn't even have a camera on hand to capture the moment so instead I got her the ice skating jacket so she can sew on the patches she has earned but since I don't sew I just taped them on until I can recruit someone to sew them for me.
 
A tea set from Grandpa Bill

Alex opening camo moccassin flats and Alyssa saying SERIOUSLY because she was the one who asked for mocassins. Don't worry they all got a pair, she actually got two pairs.

A blanket with Alyssa's hummingbird pics from Grandma Ann.

More Lego Ninjago From Grandma Susie
 The mermaid Barbie Chloe has been asking for for 10 months. Alyssa bought her one and so did my mom so we took one back and traded it for a Tangled dress.

 This next one was a big surprise from Seth. Now that the Wii U is out, the original Wii was cheap, with games included on the day after Thanksgiving, so Seth grabbed one on a whim. You all know I wasn't thrilled but the kids were SO surprised, so it was worth it to see their reaction. I was very happy when they never even looked at it or asked to open it on Christmas Day because they were wrapped up in their other gifts.


 

Chloe supervising while Alyssa opened the gift she picked for her.

 From Lyssa to Al.

The dress that we got to replace the duplicate Barbie.

Chloe by her final pile

Lyssa by her final pile

Alex, who insisted on stacking every non clothing item in his final pile before I could take a picture of his stuff.

Bernie in antlers. We got him a Santa hat too but he was not too fond of his hats.

Chloe riding her bike while playing with new toys.

Alex vanished as soon as the last gift was opened and we did not see him again until he had completed his first 1000 piece kit, Epic Dragon Battle.

 The next morning he disappeared again and did not surface until he had his other 1000 piecer built.

I also gave the kids Nativity blocks to help do the Nativity on Christmas Day but they were too busy playing to care. I would have given them to them sooner in the season but I couldn't find any blocks until Christmas Eve. I first saw these on my friend, Cheryl's blog and hers were natural wood colored so that is what I was looking for. I went everywhere but came up empty handed. Then I found these colored blocks and thought they might work. However, my Mary, Jesus and Joseph were all on one sticker so they were too big to fit on any of the blocks. I almost gave up but then realized I could cut the sticker to make them each be on separate blocks. Then the camels were too wide to fit on any of the square blocks so I wrapped them on the round blocks. I was going to make a set in each color but some of the stickers didn't show on the blue at all so I mixed and matched colors and ended up liking the mix and match final look. I made 4 sets, just because I had so many blocks and I will definitely take them out sooner next year. Each set was a little different, but I will only make you look at two of them. Thanks for another fabulous idea Cheryl!



The rest of our Christmas Day was spent lounging while the kids played and then we spent the afternoon/evening with friends. The Christiansens were kind enough to host both us and the Rosses for Christmas dinner. We had a great time chatting and the kids loved having friends to play with. Every kid 10 and up had either a new iPod or a Kindle/Nook tablet. I guess it is electronics or nothing for the double digit kiddos.

We had a great day and hope the rest of you did as well. Merry Christmas!