Christmas Day: Stockings and Grandparents

All righty, time to consolidate-here's the rest of our Christmas Day!

 After opening presents, proceeded into the rest of our day, which flew by in an instant.  We opened our stockings altogether, opting to ignore the order we had selected weeks ago.  These are just little things, so here's a few pictures:

Oh, the excitement!  I cannot contain it!!!!!!!!!

After organizing the presents and cleaning up the wrapping paper, we prepared for family visits, pretty much for the rest of the day minus a brief nap.  We walked down to my mom's house first and took a rare picture!  Woohoo!

Jackson has yet to evidence stranger danger, and had no problem immediately sitting in Grandma Erickson's lap to help her open her present.  I got her a CD she has been wanting, in addition to the family wall hanging I gave her a few days ago at the family party-it looks great in the spot she put it!  I thought it would be nice for her to have something to open at the family party-the cousins exchange gifts, the sibling couples exchange gifts, but we don't include Grandma in that, because everyone gives her a present.....but that ends up meaning she doesn't have anything to open at the party.  I saw the wall hanging and thought it was a perfect sentiment for our family, saying something along the lines of, "although we may branch out in different places, our roots stay the same"-all centered around a wooden tree cut out.  Hard to explain, but again, a perfect sentiment regarding our eternal family.  I digress.  ;)

 All the kids got to open their present from Grandma-she followed a book theme for most of the kids, with some really great toys from Burlington for the little boys.

 Grandma E. always gives us a family movie, and this year it was Inside Out-which I STILL have not seen!  The kids also opened their stockings-which they are always excited about since Grandma hangs them a month in advance!  Jared and I also got a few things that may seem odd, but were awesome for what we need-a gorgeous hose caddy (I know, weird word for it, but it really is sophisticated looking!), some gift cards, and best of all, my amazing, cherry-red crock pot.  I have SO missed doing a crock pot meal every week, and I'm excited to get back to it!

Afterwards, we visited for a while and the kids ran out to play in the backyard and jump on the trampoline.  No one else from the family had stopped by yet, so it was nice to have that little bit of time with my mom.  I am glad the siblings tend to spread out our visits on Christmas Day, as I *think* it probably helps mom feel less lonely.  In any case, it was wonderful to see her and spend time with her.

We zipped home for a quick nap, and then headed over to the Lautenschlagers' house for Christmas Dinner and more presents! To the kids' somewhat dismay ;) we decided to do dinner before presents.  I'm SO glad we opted for that!  The Lautenschlagers do an amazing prime rib for Christmas, and it is always amazing!  We had a grand time talking about our day with each other, reminiscing about good memories, and chatting about the kids.  The kids did a surprisingly good job staying at the kid table and eating their food-even keeping Brielle occupied when Aubrey was sure she would run.  They are all so cute together, I love the fact that the cousins are good friends!

After eating, we sat down together and watched a video about the birth of Christ.  Interestingly, this is the fourth time we have watched this video with the kids during the Christmas season, but it never seems to matter-they are always so into it, and watch intently.  This time around, the kids were asking questions and making comments related to Joseph.  This past Sunday in church, I taught them the song, "When Joseph Went to Bethlehem", and we talked about the character of Joseph, and what he must have been like to be the father of the Savior.  It was wonderful to see them remembering the things we talked and sang about in the context of the video.  Love my kids!  We got together for a rare family picture before moving on to presents-thanks Nikon and tripod! 

 On to the fun part!  Karianna volunteered to be the Santa, and delivered presents to everyone around-I think Sara was helping her too, while I wandered around and snapped pictures.  I always worry the kids are going to be tired of opening presents, but they were just as excited, which I know makes Grandma Lautenschlager happy-she so loves to see the kids loving her time and efforts.


This was actually James' birthday present, separate from Christmas stuff, since we had to cancel our birthday get together with the Lauts a week ago.  These cars are AMAZING!

 Ripping open a shared Chima set that the boys went nuts over!

 Patiently waiting, only to open his own interchangeable car set.

 Happiness!

 Sweet Olivia-still technically recovering from her (hopefully) last kidney surgery and looking adorable!

 Now, this was a creative gift from the Nansels-a 5 dollar McDonalds gift card for each kid.  How smart!  That covers a happy meal and an ice cream!  To say the kids were all excited is an understatement.

 And this is sweet Haizley--I could hold her all day.  Such an adorable baby, the youngest of our Lautenschlager clan.

 Once again, loving his presents with a new bey blade to add to the stash he got from us.  This was a seriously good Christmas for both boys:  legos, pokemon, bey blades, tablet--you can't do much better than that for two boys.

 He would end up spending the rest of the day playing with James' cars while Brielle would spend the rest of the day playing with James' pirate ship!

 At some point later into the evening, the kids started to droop, and you could tell.  Karianna in particular seemed exhausted, which is understandable, since she was the last one to get sick.  James also started coughing a bit in the last half hour before we left, Things started to quiet down all together-even Jared was noticeably tired!

After about 5 hours, we finally said our good byes, packed up, and headed home with a load of presents and tired, but happy kiddos. What a wonderful, wonderful holiday.  So many sweet memories beyond the presents and food, and once again, I find myself so grateful for my extended family, my Savior, my kids, and my husband.  Life can get so busy and loud, and days like today remind me how very blessed I am.  As another year winds down, I find myself invigorated with a goal to have more quiet moments than loud, where the chaos of the world doesn't seem so overpowering, and I can focus on the things that are most dear more often than those that are not.  Merry Christmas to all, and many wishes for blessings and peace.