Christmas morning

Christmas started very early for us - around 5:40.

My kids are very clear about what they want for Christmas. In fact they tell us and Santa over and over, just in case we've missed their not-so-subtle hints. Then they point them out in adds when they go on sale. So perhaps Spencer wasn't surprised to get the Nerf Vulcan, but he was still super happy about it.

24 Slinky's - that outta last him a little while. It's the main thing he wanted for Christmas.

Tyler's favorite gift of the day.

Yes, they all have footed pajamas. They were always jealous of Levi's & Brennan's, so I bought them some a few weeks ago. They were thrilled.

The boys used to love giving each other roller coaster rides in the backyard with our old wheelbarrow before it fell apart, so Santa brought them a new one.

Dave got an awesome jersey from his parents to wear when he plays hockey with Spencer. I got them tickets to see a Capitals/Sharks game in San Jose, which they are way excited about; but I suggested he not wear his jersey b/c it could be dangerous. Don't you think?

Clone Wars light saber game from grandma & grandpa. One of the few gifts he hadn't actually asked for, so he was very pleasantly surprised.

One of the few pictures of me. I was having too much fun with my new camera to remember to give it to someone else.

Frog and Toad are Dallin's favorite books in the world. He's read them all several times, but he was always sad when they were due back at the library.

Levi slept in and missed most of Christmas morning. In fact we were just about done opening presents by the time he woke up. It was actually kind of nice.

I made this apron/chef's hat for Brennan. I thought it would be so simple, but it took me like 3 nights. Perhaps I was tired and had a hard time understanding the very brief directions. Plus I had to undo several mistakes. That's how sewing tends to go for me, but I still love it.

This is my favorite picture of the whole day. It makes me laugh.

Levi started to get the hang of it once he woke up all the way.

Yay, Backyardigan toys!

We spent the whole day in our jammies, playing our new Wii games and all our toys. It really is the best day of the year.

Dave, callibrating the telescope we got from Kristen & Nathan.

I love Christmas, and it's always such a let-down when it's over. Now back to reality.

K is for King!

I taught preschool a couple weeks ago. The timing wasn't great because it was my last week to get things done before the big kids were off for Christmas. But we had so much fun that I was glad I got to do the Christmas week. We made & wrapped ornaments with their pictures on them, dressed up and acted out the Christmas story, and had a gift exchange.

I borrowed all these awesome costumes from my friend, Cheyenne. I seriously need to start building up a similar collection. They all loved dressing up.

Then they all wanted to take turns holding baby Jesus.

It was so cute to see how excited they were about the gifts they brought, watching with eager anticipation as they were opened. That was almost more fun for them than getting their own present.




Merry Christmas everyone!

Hockey!

Hockey is done for now. I was happy to get my new camera in time to take pictures of the last couple of games.

Spencer's coach likes all the players to take turns being goalie. Spencer dreaded his turn all season, but the time finally came a couple weeks ago. They won, so that was good. He blocked some shots and did a good job, but thankfully the puck spent more time on the other side of the rink.



Dave usually meets us there after work, and Levi's so happy to see him.

Last week was the championship. We went into the night in 4th place (out of 4 teams), won the first game and lost the 2nd. So we came in 2nd place overall. Spencer had a good season. He really liked his coach, who gave him just the right amount of direction from the sideline.

He does really well on face-offs.

#4 is his cousin Jacob - this was his first season. Alec and Braden played too. We were really hoping they'd all be on the same team this season, but my friend pointed out that her kids always play just a little harder when it's against their cousins.

His team, the Stars

His coach, Corey

His new friend, Ryan. His dad played hockey when he was younger, and they all (including Dave) love to play 2-on-2 (kids vs. dads) Saturday mornings. Now we have a couple weeks off before the next season starts.

Gingerbread Houses

We've always bought the gingerbread house kits, which are super easy. But this year I really wanted to make them from scratch. I found a recipe online, found a template online, then cut them out 60% of the normal house size so they could each make their own.

All Dallin wants for Christmas are his three front teeth. He lost a bottom tooth one night and the 2 top ones the next day. The toothfairy was running out of ones.

Dallin and Brennan were done super fast, but Spencer and Tyler spent hours on theirs. They've learned that the more candy they put on them the more candy they can eat off of them.

I had heard that meringue powder makes super stiff icing, and it worked GREAT. I just mixed a couple tablespoons with powdered sugar and water, and it was like cement. So putting them together was no problem, unlike last year when our house collapsed after 5 minutes.

From left to right: Tyler's, Brennan's, Spencer's and Dallin's. Yes, it was more work than the kit. But it was so much fun. Plus it reminded me of making gingerbread houses growing up. Without the stress of the icing not being stiff enough.

The tree

As soon as Thanksgiving was over the kids were ready to decorate for Christmas. We didn't have anything else planned that Saturday, so we finally gave in and put up the tree.

My big anniversary/Christmas gift this year is a camera. Dave was going to make me wait 'till Christmas to open it, but he agreed it would be nice to have it to take pictures of all our December activities. Yay!

I'm still learning how to play around with the aperture and shutter speed, but these are all taken on the automatic setting.

By the time Dave got our tree put together with the colored lights on, it was around noon. But the kids really wanted to do it in their jammies - I think they might have even changed back into jammies.

I didn't hang any ornaments. We let them do the whole thing themselves without getting too concerned about it being even. Although we have been moving them up higher with Levi around.

It was Spencer's turn to put the star on this year. We had to look back at old pictures just to be sure.