So apparently I am making a habit of posting things a week or more late....
Oh Well, Enjoy!!!
CHRISTMAS EVE:
This was a FUN evening in more ways than one. While cooking dinner I had a brilliant idea to use the mandolin to cut tomatoes (without the safety mechanism) and ended up cutting a nice chunk out of my thumb (1/2 inch long, 1/2 inch wide, 1/8-1/4 inch deep) we couldnt get the bleeding stopped so Grandma came and rescued us and took care of the kids and finished up dinner so that mommy and daddy could make an unexpected trip to the ER.
Luckily the ER wasnt busy at all and we were in and out in an hour. No stitches, but plenty of shots and wrapping and patching. It will take up to a month or more to completely heal and it is SO sore, but I will live. The hardest part is that I never realized until now how much you use your thumb for and its my right thumb, I am right handed, so it makes everyday tasks a little difficutlt. FUN TIMES!!!
So the kids had to wait for our Christmas Eve FUN until mommy and daddy got back and until mommy and daddy had a chance to eat. They were very good about it. I think (lucky for me) they were more worried about mommy than about presents. They were a little traumatized... Mommy was in shick and screamed alot (some not so nice words) while trying to get cleaned up and patched up so that we could get out of there and to the hospital. I dont think they realized what exactly was going on, but they knew it wasnt good. Sean thought I had cut my whole thumb off and was worried that the doctor wouldnt be able to put it back on, we had to explain it wasnt that bad, but that I did need to see a doctor and then I would be back to continue our FUN! Poor kiddos.
ON TO THE FUN!!!
Jammie Time:
Christmas Eve has always been a night full of traditions for us. One of those being that we always get new jammies to sleep in. This year it was just the kids that got jammies. They couldnt wait to see what kind.....
They were a hit....
The boy got How to Train Your Dragon jammies, he was a Night Fury, the jammies have built in wings, he thought that was AWESOME....
and the girl got princesses, she loves princesses.
The it was time to get showered and dressed and move onto the movie. A tradition carried on from my family....
We watch Small One every Christmas Eve, its an old Disney cartoon about the donkey that carried Mary to Bethlehem, its really cute and the kids LOVE it.
OFF TO BED!!!!
Gotta get some sleep for the BIG day!
CHRISTMAS MORNING;
This year we tried to instill in the kids that Christmas was NOT going to be a BIG Christmas for many reasons. But that it was OK, even though they are used to a BIG Christmas, Its about more than what we get in presents.
Dont get me wrong, We have always talked about the meaning of Christmas and the kids know what we are celebrating. But I think this year was the first year that they really got it. Even Sean. But it was also the year of a thousand questions about the symbolisms for Christmas. Sean is having a hard time grasping, if its Christs birthday we celebrate why do WE get presents? That was a hard one to explain to an Aspie. He is so literal that symbollisms usually go right over his head. So explaining it was tough. We tried to explain that it was about giving not getting. We used the gifts from the wisemen as an example, and Heavenly Father giving us the gift of his son, and so on and so forth. I think by the end he was still a little confused but understood more than he had.
This was the first year that he didnt end the morning with "is that it?" The kids were content. And that is a good thing in my book.
Despite this day (and this year) being more about the time we spend with our loved ones, we always seem to end up with nothing but pictures of the presents. I think its because we get so wrapped up in the family time that we skip the taking pictures to capture those precious moments.
So I apologize that presents will overwhelm this blog.
But then again, even though they are not the meaning of Christmas or the sole purpose of Christmas, they still play an important role : )
So here it goes.....
The tree with ALL the goodies:
Lexi was the first one awake, she was up at 5am. She had to wake Sean up at 5:30am because she got tired of waiting....
That is unusual, its usually the other way around.
Then after potty trips, and stretching and yawning it was time to open presents....
The "Santa" Gift:
Yes, the kids still believe in Santa. But in our house "Santa" only brings one present a year. This was the presents for this year....
Straight off their list....
Sean wanted action figures, we decided to take it to the next level and start a new collection from his favorite movie at the moment. So he got Hiccup and Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon.
For Lexi its still all about babies, she loved babies... real or pretend. She loved that this one came with all the accessories to care for it too. Its FUN to watch her be a little mommy. She is SO good at it, shes a natural.
The Much Anticipated Gift:
This was the one thing they both got that wasnt on their list, but that they have been asking for since they grew out of their smaller ones a few months back. They were SO excited when they saw them and I am sure they will get much use over the next couple years : )
New Scooters..... Red for the girl and blue for the boy. We have to stay color coded here so there is no confusion as to whos is whos.
The Electronic Gift:
The kids both asked for different electronic items this year, it was cute to see how excited they both got. I dont think they thought they were going to get them....
For Lexi she has really gotten into pictures and scrapbook and has decided she wants to try her hand at photography. So we got her a cheap digital kid friendly camera to start off on and get the feel of it.
And for Sean it was all about the MP3 player. Ever since Lex got one for her birthday he has been wanting one. He nabs hers alot, and while she is nice enough to share, its nice that they dont have to anymore. We somehow got side tracked on that for his birthday, but made up for it at Christmas. He was excited that all his favorite songs were loaded on it all ready and he could listen to it straight out of the package : ) It made for a great distracter most of the day. When he gets overwhelmed with things just being too much he looks for a way to kind of tune out the world around him. This was a good outlet. He took it with us all day so he could plug into it when he needed to.
Family Gift:
So its no secret that we have a family full of gamers in this house, some more than others. So I decided, that being the case, we needed some new kid friendly games to play together on the Wii....
So I got Shrek the Third and Wii Play for the family, the kids seemed to be excited and cant wait to try them out.
Mommys Turn:
I like to think that I am an easy one to shop for, but this is usually a struggle for Brandon. This year he did good. All on his own too.
I got a new George Foreman family size grill, which I have been hinting about for 2 years now since my little one broke. And Eclipse. YAY!!!
Good Job hunny, I LOVE them.
Daddys Turn:
Daddy is a hard one to shop for on a budget, he has expensive tastes. But the only thing he specifically asked for this year was a shirt. So that was an easy order to fill. But we couldnt just stop there.....
Daddy got a new Wii game, Speed Racer with the wheel of course. And a new outfit, shirt and pants. He seemed to like it. It was the first game played on the Wii that morning.
Stocking Time:
Usually they want to attack those first, but for some reason they were the last things to be opened this year. Its all good.
They were the icing on the cake.
Lexi got a bragbook filled with pics of her and her BFFL (she just moved to Florida, and Lex misses her alot, so this was something that she really enjoyed. A way to relive their happy memories), some scrapbooking stickers, and some bandits (I think thats what they are called, the new fad in silicone funny shaped braclets).
Sean got a new mini bumblebee transformer, a transformer blendits coloring book, and his own set of bandits (boy shapes of course)
All of this along with the usual fruit and treats.
Play Time:
Can you tell what the favorite presents of the morning were?
They LOVED All their presents, but these were the ones that had to come out first.
Even though it was still dark out, and freezing cold, the kids insisted on trying out their scooters as soon as we had them assembled. It was short lived but still cute.
After our family festivities, and getting to enjoy our fun gifts, we headed to Miles and Tiffanys house to meet up with Brandons family for breakfast and gift exchange.
YUMMY! Breakfast burritos, and baby fixes...
I LOVE getting to spend all the time with the neices and nephews and get in all my cuddles. They are ALL getting SO big! I havent seen them all for awhile and yet all the little ones seem to find their way into Aunt Jennies arms at some point. Some more short lived than others, but always FUN!
Brandons mom gave all the grandkids a personalized folder full of childrens stories that she has written, it was really cute and they have had loads of FUN reading them. We got our family games, which is ALWAYS fun. And Miles and Tiff got all the families a tin of popcorn and a certificate from restaraunts.com, we cant wait to use it.
(I forgot to take my camera into their house, so I missed out on getting family pics taken, these pics were taken after we got home)
Then it was off to Grandma and Grandpa B's house for lunch and FUN TIMES with the fam.....
Grandpa did good at the present picking this year (correction, he is always good at the present picking, but this year he was extra good at it ; ) ) The kids LOVED their presents.
Sean got a supersize Bakugan, he was in seventh heaven.
And Lex got a new part to her ZhuZhu pet world and a new ZhuZhu pet (pink, her fav color)
And I am very excited to read the first edition (still in need of edits and additions) of my dads life story.
Someone who will remain nameless (LOL... I am sure you can guess who) stole my camera and I ended up with some very funny and yet very disturbing pictures on my camera later... Gotta love my family ; )
Since we were ALL together at the same time and that doesnt seem to happen very often, there is always someone missing, Debi suggested we take a family pic, and it was a great idea.
(It was an excuse for her to use her new camera too)
We are all in our pj's or comfy clothes, not dressed up at all. But it was a great family pic of the WHOLE crew. Thanks Deb!!! YOU ROCK!!!
Grandpa cooked up a delicious lunch and then we hung out and played games and just enjoyed each others company for most of the afternoon and early evening....
The kids had daddy go home and get their scooters so they could go to the park by Grandma and Grandpa B's house and ride them...
They are too cute, I love these guys!
We ended the Christmas evening back at Brandons moms house for games, Unfortunately it was short lived. The little miss had too much excitement for one day and was getting a headache so we had to call it an early night. But we did enjoy the time that we did have with them, and the food that Grandma sent home with us (both of them) yummy! I finally got to see the 2 newest additions to the Doucet Clan, they are both such cuties. And got my baby fix for the day ; )
All in All, it was a FUN TIME!!
The After Effects:
Thanks to a generous and unexpected Christmas present from Brandons boss and the gift card we received from Grandison and Jill at our gift exchange (and the kids pitching in a small portion their Christmas cash) we were able to get an additional family present.
The kids have missed playing Wii Fit games since we gave it back to Grandma and Grandpa and we have been wanting to get our own for awhile, Now we were finally able to.
And they were SO excited! So were mommy and daddy, now if I can just get my thumb to heal so that I can be a little more intense in my activity that will be the icing on the cake : )
Grandma Diane sent the kids a gift card and they were SO happy to be able to go pick out their own presents with it.....
(Of course for Sean it was Bakugan, that is the new obsession. And Lexi is really into arts and crafts so for her it was art supplies)
(Grandma wasnt here to thank in person so the kids drew her pictures and sent them to her through Facebook, it was too cute)
I am sure I am missing pictures of something or missing thanking someone for something (ie: Brandons Grandparents on both sides sent us money for Christmas)just know that if you had a part in our Christmas at all we really love and appreciate ALL that you do for us. Thanks to everyone involved for making this a GREAT holiday.
Loves to ALL our Family and Friends.....
AND.....
Its time to say good-bye to 2010 and.....
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
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