A Very Merry Christmas 2012

Another amazing Christmas has come and gone.  I love this time of year and it makes me so sad to see it go. This year we had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of stuffed cabbage with Ben's family that live in town.  We all wore our pajamas and enjoyed the time together.  We ended the night with Ben reading the Nativity story from the scriptures and the kids anxious to get home and in bed.  Once the kids were bed, Ben made me finally watch "The Christmas Story".  Oh man, it was funny, I'll admit, but not my favorite.  My favorite is White Christmas and that's what I watched while wrapping and wrapping.  We were in bed by 12:30 and waking up with the kids around 6:15.  We told the kids to wait til they saw sunlight and then they could come wake us up, but Ben and I were just as eager and we were all up before to much sunlight was showing.

I snapped a quick picture of the presents under the tree before they were opened.  I loved the coordinating paper I got this year.  All the presents under the tree were from Mom and Dad.  Santa left his gifts on the fireplace and the kids were too quick to them that I didn't get a picture.

Shelby got a karaoke machine from Santa and we had a great time that morning and later at my parent's house, singing our hearts out.  I love seeing the mess behind us in that picture too.  More of that "joyful mess" I love.

The boys were quickly off to try out new xbox games wearing new pajama pants and shirts.  I think the kids really loved everything they got and it was all perfect, despite the head colds Shelby and I have been suffering with.
After presents, we headed to the Gainey's for our traditional Christmas Breakfast.  It's just not Christmas without aebelskivers and sausage fondue.  I'm so grateful it has been continued all these years and that my kids love it too.  Once we were full, we headed home and relaxed and played some more.  Later in the afternoon, we headed to my parent's house and hung out and munched and laughed and ate a yummy dinner.  Then it was time for more presents.  Our theme for this year was books and I loved it!  And the kids were actually really excited about the different books they got too.  I love the themes idea we do and seeing everyone's personalities come out in their gifts.  I think my favorite gift of the day, came from my parents.  It was three boxes stacked up.  The top box was the new Les Mis movie soundtrack.  The next box was 20 bucks and a paper giving the times for the Green Valley Ranch Buffet.  The last box was 2 tickets to the earliest showing of the Les Mis movie for the next morning.  Ben had been secretly plotting with them and got all the details worked out.  I loved it!  And I loved the movie!  It was the best movie I have ever seen and really want to go again.
I am so grateful for family and the feelings of love and giving that accompany this time of year.  Hopefully, we can keep it around all year long.