Christmas!!!

 We had a fun Christmas this year! It began with a Christmas party with our friends on the 22nd. It was sooo much fun having our friends over. (And I even managed to not be a crazy nut getting ready for it.) I forgot to get pictures of the party though. 

We don't have alot of decorations, as I just don't know where they were put after we moved. But the decorations we do have looked great.

These pictures were from Breakfast with Santa at Zoey's school. Breakfast with Santa was a bit deceiving though; we had breakfast and then we could go pay to have pictures taken with Santa. We were all disappointed about that.

Christmas Morning!!!

Unfortunately, mom had to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, which made for a bit of a bummer. But we made the best of it...

On Christmas Eve, we had the traditional dinner--pizza! Then we sat in the living room and talked about the reason for Christmas. Zoey and Kyler understand why and like to talk about Jesus being born. We sang some--off tune--carols and did the Night Before Christmas reading. Mom is a bit rusty, but she did pretty good. Then the kids opened the presents--PJ's!! They weren't very excited, but they weren't surprised either. We did, however, let them open another gift. Kyler and Zoey clothes and Jake opened a tactical gun bag. And they all went to bed--willingly--by 8:30!!

Christmas morning, we got up early--really early. Mom had to be at work at 6:30 a.m. and the choice was to get up early and open gifts or wait until mom got home from work that night--6:30 P.M. No way were the kids going to wait that long! Everyone was excited to see what Santa brought (I don't know where that picture went though.) 

Jake got the sling shot he wanted; Kyler got a couple of Halo toys he wanted; and Zoey got an EZ Bake oven that she wanted!! 

Then we started opening gifts!!!

Jake received an air soft gun and several accessories to go with it. He was very happy with it. Zoey gave him a watch and Kyler gave him game points for the X-Box. If you look closely, you can see Jake smile! He is so cute when he smiles! 

 

 Zoey had asked for Polly Pockets that hang on the wall--she got the whole set! She was very happy with it. She also got lots of clothes.

 Kyler got a few more Halo toys, but he didn't get the Pelican ship he was hoping for. He was trying to be a good sport about it, but he was really, really sad.

And then mom, brought out his last gift--the PELICAN!!! As you can see, he was really, really, REALLY, happy about it!!! He jumped up and gave dad and mom hugs immediately. Making kids happy is the bestest part of Christmas!!!

Russ and the kids and mom gave me both sets of Pampered Chef pans I wanted, and Russ is getting his bullet reloading equipment he wanted (I would have ordered it to open on Christmas, but I didn't know what  he wanted.)

We had a fantastic Christmas, but we missed being with our extended family. We love you all and are so grateful for all we have.