We had a Christmas party with some friends a couple days before Christmas. I tried my hand at making breadsticks (we had pasta, breadsticks, and salad for the dinner). They were surprisingly easy and SUPER yummy. The kids were sent downstairs and the rest of us adults ate, chatted, and ate some more. Really fun. :)
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| I was really awesome and took zero pictures at our party - so I mooched the only one of our family taken from my friend. :) |
Christmas Eve was spent getting ready for Santa and for Christmas Day (so I wouldn't have to cook). We made cookies for Santa, I made cinnamon rolls, and watching Christmas movies (since we have no movie theater to go on our traditional outing for a movie). It magically snowed...for about 30 minutes two days before Christmas making us wonder if we'd get a white Christmas this year. Nope - 60 degree weather - just like last year!
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| Watching the snow fall. :) |
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| Rowland trying to see too. :) |
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| A Christmas fairy granting wishes... |
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| Helping make the Christmas cookies - they MUST be chocolate chip according to Ross. (I am suspecting it might be because he always gets a dough ball and a few chocolate chips when we make them...) |
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| Cinnamon roll dough is the most beautiful dough I've ever worked with. I literally love smoothing it out - it's so soft!! |
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| "Mom, I'm kind of over these cheerios...how about a cinnamon roll?" |
We settled down to do a Christmas devotional...which - I'll spare you most of the details - was half of a train wreck with tired, grumpy kids. We still read the Christmas story and shared what our gifts to the Savior were for that year, said our family prayers, and then quickly set out our cookies, and tucked the kids in bed before any more drama could occur., and Steve and I watched one more Christmas movie while we wrapped each other's presents before calling it a night.
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The next morning Ross came in, and I was delirious as to what day it was. He was looking for some clothes to change in to and I told him to just grab some downstairs when he said, "Mom, I can't! Santa's down there!" Haha. Both he and Steve went down and when Ross saw that Santa had come, he started doing a little Ross dance and singing, "I was a goo-oood boooooy. I was a goo-oood boooy!" LOVE that kid. :)
Ross was ELATED to get the inclusive toy boat complete with a crane, shark, helicopter, raft, and cars from Santa. Ruby was dying over her dress ups. She promptly put each one on when she opened them, and then preferred the wedding dress one with the veil I made her. Rowland got some stacking toys he loved dismantling anytime anyone tried to stack them.
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| Ready for Christmas! |
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| Our old neighbors were super generous and gave our kids gifts as well. Ruby got this Elsa wig. haha! |
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| Rowly got a piano baby toy. Which all of the kids have enjoyed. |
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| Dress up #1 - fairy outfit. |
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| Ross's wish from Santa. A dream come true! |
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| Dress up #2 - Cinderella. |
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| Steve ALWAYS guesses his presents and I hate it! He couldn't guess this one though. :) Lord of the Rings Extended edition on Blue Ray. So thick and heavy - like a book! :) |
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| Dress up #3 - wedding dress. |
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| Steve got me a luggage scale - since whenever we fly mine are always borderline! |
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| Rowly got some sweet new shoes from his Great Grandma Staheli. |
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| Both Ruby and I LOVE this - lots of coloring and stamping...and NO mess. :) |
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| Eating Christmas oranges. :) |
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| Ross was also wishing for an ambulance which he got from Great Grandma Staheli. He LOVES it. |
Steve was wishing for power tools which was granted - getting a chop saw and a hand sander. I also got him the illustrated Harry Potter book so he can read it to the kids, but it didn't come until the middle of January. Haha.
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| Every time he gets his tools out and works on something - it's like Christmas all over again. Haha! :) |
I got a sweet blue tooth speaker since I play music off my phone all the time at home, it's fun to listen to it properly!
We got the kids some fishing poles, and some nice scooters too which they have loved and was totally worth the money.
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| Trying out the scooters. (Wedding dresses may help). |
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| The aftermath... |
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| Finally got her to look at me! |
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| Our traditional matching Christmas Jammies. |
After all that, we called family and the kids opened their presents from Grandpa and Grandma. Grandma Claudia made the kids an awesome puppet show theater and gave them loads of puppets. We've had a ton of fun with that. They also got a tee pee too!
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| Of course the babies prefer the boxes - right?? |
Later the kids tried out their scooters and Rowland went down for a nap, and then the missionaries came to call their families. It took longer than we were expecting (since a couple of them didn't even tell their families when they would be calling....????) but we tried out a couple of the new games we got including Quelf which I got from my brother-in-law and is HILARIOUS.
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| We played Bubble Talk and came across this picture - at a glance - it totally looks like Steve!! Haha! |
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| Merry Christmas from our family to yours! |
Our kids enjoyed their new movie Ice Age 4 they got for Christmas and we played some more with all the new toys after the missionaries left. It was a fun day, and Steve and I are REALLY enjoying the magic of Christmas more with our kids.
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