Faith's Video and Christmas Recap

I have at last uploaded Faith's video successfully! I posted it here with the Christmas morning pictures to help set the Christmas reading mood, because even though these pictures show some of the kids' presents, they weren't what made our Christmas so great. (If the video starts stuttering, I would let it run through without volume, then click play again and turn the volume back on and it should play smoothly.)



We had a really nice Christmas. We warned the kids to not wake us up before 7:00, so at 7:01 they appeared at our bedside all dressed and ready to delve into presents.
It was a very nice morning as everyone took turns opening presents. Between Black Friday sales and some really great deals we found on Amazon, Santa managed a really nice Christmas for very little money. They also had presents my mom had left, that Jesse and Sam sent, that Papa and Leigh sent, and their adopted Gramma Berta had sent. And they seemed to genuinely love every single present. There was at least one thing that each of them really wanted, and one thing each of them loved and didn't even know they wanted until they opened it. I love presents like that.

Beth kept pulling off her package bows and sticking them on her head. This was a box of long colorful socks my mom bought her. Beth loves socks like this, and one pair even had frogs on them!

Faith has been wanting one of these chairs forever, and those movies aren't new releases but are titles she has really loved watching over and over this week. Today we were watching Hairspray and she was blown away when I mentioned that the mom is really a man in real life. (John Travolta) Her reaction was hilarious. I wish you could have seen it! She was stunned!
Todd couldn't wait to play UDance, but since Santa forgot to bring the batteries it needs he had to wait.


Have I shared Matt's coffee obsession with you? I won't talk about his cream and sugar to coffee ratio, but he laughed as much when he opened this big huge mug as we did when we picked it out for him.
I shared how much Chet loved this book, so when I saw the game on sale for an incredible price we had to get it for him. They have all played it a few times, and I love that girls have to repeat "boys are fantastic, girls are elastic" before they can join in.

All Kyle really wanted (other than a live tiger in a cage and a dirt bike... Santa wasn't bringing those!) was a disco ball. He wants to have parties in his room with hot girls. We got him the disco ball, and he can have parties, but the hot girls are a big no. This was his favorite disco ball, but he also got the rainbow one and a strobe light. As I type this the kids are in his room having a party, dancing to Todd's new Kids Bop CD. The girls put on dresses for it, and Faith asked to use the tickets from our trip to Silver Dollar City yesterday as ID to get in the door at Klub Kyle.

Beth received a set of frog towels and decorations for the kids' bathroom, so I couldn't resist when I found this Barbie set for her dollhouse. It is a bathroom set with frog accents. I think I might have to gather all the froggy gifts she received and take a picture, because she really raked in some fun frog things.

I think the best gift was the Nerf guns. The boys received a 4 pack, and I really should have gotten 2 packs of them so we could all play at once. Josh and Mystery and kids came over to spend the day with us, and while our enchiladas were cooking Todd and Josh battled it out.

These little guns with foam darts have been so much fun.

Everybody should make time in their lives for a Nerf war.


Overall, it was a calm, quiet, and fun Christmas day. One of the best we have ever had. In fact, other than Beth getting that flu bug again on Friday, the whole weekend was great. We really enjoyed just getting time together without having to be anywhere. We watched movies, cooked yummy food, hung out in our jammies, and just played together. I hope your holiday was just as awesome, no matter how you spent it!