Merry Christmas

I love it when Christmas falls on a Sunday. I enjoy getting up and getting ready for church (it's also helpful when church is at 9am) and being able to enjoy a beautiful sacrament meeting that really turns your focus to the true meaning of Christmas. I just really think it sets a perfect tone for the whole rest of the day. When Jacob and Caleb learned Christmas would be on a Sunday, they didn't quite share my enthusiasm at first. But after sitting there in church listening to the choir sing and the beautiful messages being shared, Jacob turned to me and said, "You're right Mom. Having Christmas on a Sunday really is the best." Talk about melting your heart. I love these sweet kids of mine.

I wanted to get a family picture that morning- Emily and I coordinated in red and the boys were all in blue & gray- but I wanted to early for church more. So we snapped a quick picture of the kids and made it to church 10 minutes early.

After church some of us got changed, and then we started in with the gifts. This was the first time in many years we've been home with the whole family. Although it was a little loud and crazy, it was so much fun. Everyone was pretty excited.


I loved watching Emily and Lilah run around. They were so funny. They loved taking presents to everyone, going through their stockings, and just enjoying the palpable excitement in the air.

Because we did our family Christmas at home before we left, the kids didn't get gifts from Mom & Dad, but they got some fun things from Grandma and Grandpa and aunts & uncles. And Santa did fill their stockings and brought them a couple of special presents. The boys got a set of laser tag guns (that were thoroughly enjoyed by everyone during the holiday) and our family must have been really good, because Santa brought us an Xbox Kinnect- the very first electronic toy we've ever had.

Jacob got an electric scooter

Caleb got a battery operated race track.

Matthew got a shake 'n go race track he'd been wanting for months.

And Emily was super excited about her new little doll and stroller. She loved sitting with Jeff to open her gifts, but when the stroller came out she was pretty much done with her presents.

It was so funny to watch her- she spent the next 20 minutes pushing her baby in circles around the kitchen island. It was so cute-especially when she would have her purse & cell phone with her.

I took this candid shot and it's probably one of my favorites. I wish I would have gotten everyone in the picture better, but I still love how it's a real life glimpse into the family Christmas. Everyone is happily engrossed in the moment, opening a gift or talking to a family member, and enjoying being together.
After we finished with all the gifts, we all helped make a yummy Christmas lunch. The rest of the day was spent lounging around, a few of us enjoyed naps, listening to music, telling stories, eating lots of yummy food, watching "It's a Wonderful Life" again, and just enjoying being together. I told Jeff it really couldn't have been a more perfect Christmas.

Later on that night, everyone was enjoying playing with Tom's new "buckey balls." They were hard to put down!
But the classic moment of the night was when Dad started playing with the funny magnetic toys. I think this is one of the funniest pictures of Dad and I hope he'll forgive me for putting it up. (But Kristie did put it up on her blog first, and since it was already long gone in web land, I figured doing it again wouldn't be too harmful. But Kristie did it first! :)