Christmas

Christmas this year was awesome. We were so blessed and had a great Christmas this year. My favorite thing to do is spend lots of time with family and eat lots of great food. It was neat to sit down with the kids this year and really explain what Christmas is really for and them actually get it. Their faces were so priceless as we told the story. They loved setting up the manger scene this year and knew who each person was. For Christmas Eve this year we went to Derek's Moms house and had delicious homemade chicken noodle soup and lots of yummy snacks and goodies. My favorite thing that I look forward to every year is the peanut brittle and toffee. I can always count on Karalee to have plenty for me to enjoy. Great, now I am craving some. :) We exchanged gifts and it was so much fun watching all the kids get so excited everytime they got another present to open, and then tearing into it. The anticipation of waiting for their turn was great. Jace just didn't get that and tore into his, he even went a little overboard and was nice enough to open grandmas for her but we didn't notice till it was all the way open. He didn't really care what was in them, he just wanted to rip through that paper. Christmas morning was wonderful. The kids actually woke up themselves this year and had to wake us up. Thats never happened, usually we have to pull them out of bed and bribe them with the presents and candy that awaits them. I guess they finally get what is going on and just couldn't wait this year. After opening our gifts, Derek's Dad joined us for our new traditional breakfast of omlets. It was really fun to make them and actually really quite easy. After breakfast we headed to my sister Jeni's house to have more yummy food and exchange more gifts. It was so fun that we got to get my brother Mike and his family on Skype (after a long headache to finally get it to work) to exchange our gifts with them. I really miss having them here, but that was the next best thing. We had delicious ham and potatoes for dinner, then we played our traditional santa bingo that is always hillarious with my family and our little white elephant game. My mom is always so good to have great prizes for everyone. The kids loved it and couldn't believe they got to open more presents. It was such a great Christmas, I loved being with family and just having a great time. I just can't believe it's over.