Having gone to bed around 5:30 a.m., Christmas morning dawned a little early for my taste, but despite being tired, the excitement from the kids was contagious and by the time everyone was ready, I was wide awake and ready!
Santa was good to us this year!
Getting ready to come down the stairs to see the gifts.
The family this year:
We missed you Chad, Laura, Tyler, Mason, Grant and Jason!
As is tradition in my family, we all come down the stairs youngest to oldest, so Cole got the first peek at the gifts.
Three excited boys surveying the loot.
Stockings are awesome. So many fun little things packed into a small space. It really takes about 10 minutes for everyone to go through their own, eat some candy, and play with the small trinkets before we're ready to move on to the bigger gifts.
Cole was especially excited about his candy and gum.
Lance has been eating up anything Minecraft these days, so he was pretty excited to get this shirt. It even glows in the dark!
And of course anything Lance likes, Jude has to like too. Thanks Aunt Amy for the Minecraft toys!
A new Mickey Mouse book!
Jude likes Ninja Turtles and was excited to get this great hoodie.
Maybe not quite as excited as George. :)
This plasma car was for Cole, but quickly got adopted by everyone else in the room. Yes, even I took a turn on it.
Santa switched out the front plastic wheels for roller blade wheels and it works amazingly well. I think this is going to fun for years to come. Maybe Santa should have brought two!
Jude's big gift this year was a 2-wheel bike! It's been too cold to try it out yet, but I can see us getting a lot of milage out of it this spring and summer.
Lance has been interested in archery for a while now, even saving up his money to by his own bow, so he was really happy when he opened up his own compound bow!
Sweet! It's a Genesis bow so it should grow with him.
Cole is still at the stage where he opens one gift and is totally content to sit and play without thought that there might be other fun things for him to open.
"Digger!" We still have some gifts he hasn't opened yet. Perfect--we'll save them for your Birthday!
Amy made this cute little fox hat and blanket for our baby. Isn't it darling?
Cole has been really interested in dolls and when he finds a baby doll, he'll carry it around with him, patting it's back and hugging it. So, we got him a baby doll.
I think it's precious. He'll be a good big brother!
And Lance finally got to see his quilt! He had seen me sewing, but never saw any of the blocks finished or really knew what I was working on, so it was a fun surprise.
His reaction made me tear up. "You made this for me? Thank you! I love it!" all with a big hug. After spending over 150 hours working on these things, that made it totally worth it!
Jude was very excited to get a bow of his own. Thanks again, Aunt Amy! You always give the best gifts!
And of course he got his Mario quilt.
George opened it and he had a fun time jumping on the goomba and pointing out all the characters he recognized. (He later wouldn't let George sleep with it because "it's too special".) Yay!
George got a paintball gun and helmet. He spent a while that day putting it all together and researching it online.
Doesn't this scream "Amy"? George and I saw this on Think Geek and immediately knew Amy had to have it.
I almost got one for me, too. You only need one earring hole, but since it curls around your ear it stays in place. Love it!
After a wonderful Christmas morning at Grandma and Grandpa's house, we drove over to Grandmom and Pop Pop's where we all got to open even more gifts!
Nice helicopter, Jude!
These kids love being here!
Cole reading stories with Pop Pop.
And of course Lance spent most of the day hanging out and playing Minecraft with Bryce and Callie.
Around 2 p.m., I drove back over to my mom's house and got to talk to Jason (on a mission) for a little over half an hour! It was so good to hear his voice for the first time in over 6 months. He seems like he's doing well and is enjoying the work, although he's looking forward to the day when his visa will finally come and he can go to Brazil. For now, he's loving the people and the work in Ohio and Indiana.
We had a wonderful turkey dinner with George's family and spent the rest of the day socializing and spending time together.
Jude and Cole enjoyed decorating sugar cookies.
Thanks, Aunt Jen!
We gave Callie and Bryce Minecraft quilts for Christmas! They were basically the same as Lance's although Callie's background was purple instead of blue. (George said he liked Callie's best.)
Here are the kids with all four quilts!
It was a very Merry Christmas!
Just in case you're interested, here are the quilts all finished:
I have to say I'm pretty proud. This was my first real venture into the world of quilting and I loved it! I mean, I had a couple break-downs along the way and I wish I had started earlier, but I learned more than I thought was possible. Would I do it again? Yes, although I think I would do one quilt at a time instead of four.
The Christmas festivities continued with a family Christmas dinner on the 28th at my mom's house. She decided to wait to have our family dinner until Laura and Tyler were back in town from Florida.
Look how big Grant is getting! He's like a little boy now!
These three boys are so fun!
(Lance missed the dinner because he got to spend time with his Dahlquist family who were in town because Scott and Abbey got married on the 27th! Yay for them!)
My mom as the best sons-in-law. :) She put them to work building this bookshelf for her room.
It looks great, guys!
And of course these boys found the best toy in the house:
Jude has been asking a lot recently about my dad who passed away 12 years ago, so my mom got out some old pictures of him to show the boys. They loved seeing their mommies as little kids in the pictures and learning a little bit more about their Grandpa Kirk.
Merry Christmas!
