Merry Christmas! We have had such a good day today, and a wonderful time building family memories...it is hard to really write a blog post about this, so I think I'll post all the pictures (aaaaalllllll the pictures) and maybe just add in some comments. I'll just say that, as a family, we know Jesus is our Savior, and loves us. We know he is the way, the truth, and the light, and it is our privilege to celebrate him today, and everyday. Merry Christmas!
We started with our traditional Christmas morning breakfast around 9:30-that's actually about half an hour earlier than normal! We had a huge spread of eggs, bacon, sausage, waffles, fruit, and hash browns. Delicious, if I do say so myself. I had most of it ready before the kids even woke up thanks to our late night last night, and I always get kick out of seeing their faces when they come into the front room and see the tree all aglow, making the wrapping paper shine!
Our pre-unwrapping picture!
And the madness ensues! We started with Karianna and had each kid open one present at a time. Sounds like it would take forever, but each kid had 5 presents, so it actually goes quite fast, and I enjoy taking the time to see each child appreciate what they got. The other kids balked at this last year a bit, but they did quite well with it this year! So in no particular order, here are the gifts that I was able to capture:
Jackson loved tearing the paper off-and he did pretty good at it! Most of his gifts were very engaging, and you could tell he wanted to touch buttons, pull things right away.
Karianna had seen this nail kit at Walmart weeks ago and begged me for it. It was therefore fun to see her reaction!
Karianna had a very specific list this year, and I got most of it, but diverted for this gift that I knew she would go crazy for-boots!
Scored some normally-expensive Ninjago lego sets for the boys for very cheap online and with gift cards, so I ended up paying very, very little for both of them-score!
Been holding on to this for about 3 months after getting it on deep clearance. Sara loves playing school and doing art projects, so this was right up her alley.
Long after these were in style, James got his own pillow pet!
JD's stash
Jordan's stash
Karianna's stash
Sara's stash
James' stash-and look! It's Jared!
Jackson's stash
And Jackson making a beeline towards the garbage pile!
The kids thought they were done when we surprised them with the big presents that they just were not expecting: an air hockey table for the boys! They went nuts-literally!
A new kitchen set for James and Sara-James didn't even want to look up!
And a tablet for Karianna-look at that reaction!!!!
Jared and I got each other a few gifts that we pretty much new about, though Jared was not expecting the knife sharpener I got him-I don't think he realized I knew how to shop for that! I definitely was not expecting the necklace and earring set he got for me-and he had a friend at work order it for him so I wouldn't know! So sneaky, and I LOVE the thought that went into this. I love the necklace and earrings, of course, but the thought means the world to me. I love this man!
Stockings are always fun and always come after presents......
Then we were off to Grandma Erickson's house to share some gifts with her. Just a few shots below....
Grandma gave Karianna a subscription to the New Era, which I was excited about!
Last but not least, we dashed over to the Lautenschlagers' house for some seriously amazing prime rib....I can't explain how much I love their prime rib! We really enjoyed hanging out as a family-the kids opened a ton more presents-they get so much!!!!! Thankfully, they were extremely grateful in their reactions and words, which makes me so proud of them.
These cars are just awesome-they go forward and then reverse automatically!
Waiting for dinner at the infamous kid table! I wish I would have gotten a picture of Karianna and her loom bands-between me and Grandma, she got over 20 packets of them! Yikes!
And thus ends the epic picture stream from Christmas! Such a busy but wonderful day!
No comments:
Post a Comment