Christmas Joy

This was a joyous Christmas! It's hard not to feel complete joy when spending Christmas with my kids. They have a way of soaking in every second and living it to it's fullest! With Brynne having the flu right up until Christmas Eve, we were worried about how things would turn out. But she stopped running a fever on the evening of the 23rd. Although she was pretty tired, she still had enough energy to enjoy all of the festivities!

This was our first Christmas in our new home, so a lot of our traditions changed. But since we are back in the town where I grew up and with my family again, some of my childhood traditions came back. It was the perfect blend of old and new. I hardly know where to begin.

Let's start with Christmas Eve. In Oklahoma we always spent Christmas Eve with Rick's sister and her family. We had Mexican food, watched Christmas Vacation, let the kids open their Christmas pjs, tucked the little kids into Dawson's bedroom with him for a sleepover, and then Rick and I stayed up way too late wrapping all of the kids' gifts.

2008 ~ Rick's niece and nephew are now in their 20's. My niece, Rylee, happened to be visiting that Christmas.

This year we took our Mexican food to my mom and dad's to continue our tradition (because tradition is VERY important to my kids). After dinner we opened gifts. This year I made no-sew fleece blankets for everybody in my family. And they loved them! (I was actually surprised how much!) I made a total of 11 blankets and prayed for each member of my family as I made them. After gifts we went to church for our candlelight service. I played in the hand bell choir. Our family took up the entire second pew. It was really special for me to have all of my kids (plus Collin and Taylar), my husband, and the rest of my family there. I also adored looking up to see my five month old niece, Ashtyn, smiling and squealing at me while I played. I love her so much!

From left to right: Collin (Kyndal's boyfriend), Kyndal holding my niece Ashtyn, Dawson, Taylar (Dawson's girlfriend), my niece Rylee, Eli and Brynne.

After dessert and coffee back at mom and dad's, and some fun playing Headbanz, we headed home. The kids opened their pjs and then all went to bed. Rick and I stayed up and wrapped presents while watching Christmas Vacation.

I was so happy to have us all together this year!

Grandma and Papa with all their grandkids, minus Bell who is in Portland, Oregon.

Here is Bell. She was two months old on Christmas Day. My parents had that "NOEL" pillow thing when I was a kid. We always thought it looked like it said "HOEL", so that's what we called it. When I grew up and moved away from home, I took it and had it in my house for many Christmases. Then my brother begged to have it when he and Shawna got married. Tim texted this photo to us on Christmas Day this year. We all just died laughing! It was the perfect Christmas photo! Very fitting!

Brynne gave me some of her sickness from last week (thankfully I don't have the flu), so I coughed and carried on until almost 2:30 a.m. Christmas morning. At straight up 8:00 a.m. Eli came bounding into our bedroom full of excitement! It was Christmas morning! We called my mom and dad and started dragging everybody else out of bed. The kids opened their stockings while we waited for grandma and papa.

Then Eli handed out gifts from Santa, one-at-a-time. We make the kids take turns opening gifts, from youngest to oldest, and then back around again, until they are all gone. That way we can all enjoy what everybody receives. It was a happy Christmas! Kyndal and Dawson's big gifts this year were laptop computers. They were thrilled, to say the least! Eli's big gift was the Imaginext Eagle Talon Castle and Brynne's was her Ultimate Easy Bake Oven, in purple NOT pink. However, she was SO excited about the blanket I made her. She had it wrapped around her all day. (I realized how much she is like me. Her favorite gifts were her comfy gifts .. her robe and blanket.)

After Santa gifts I made our traditional Christmas breakfast of sticky buns and biscuits and gravy. We finished eating and then opened the gifts we had bought each other. Grandma and Papa went home and we spent the rest of the day watching movies, playing and cleaning up. Kyndal and Collin went back to his parents' and Dawson and Taylar went to Taylar's Nana's for the afternoon.

A computer, ice scraper, blanket and underwear. What more could a girl want from Santa? (The kids always get underwear in their stockings. I told Collin that he has that to look forward to if/when he officially joins our family.)

Dawson doesn't have his super-cool blanket I made him in this picture. But he is holding the things most important to him!!

When Eli opened the Legos he said, "I didn't even know I wanted this! But, okay."

Brynne looks like she got tons more than everyone else, but she didn't. I think it was just the way it was arranged. She did get more smaller gifts, packaged together. So her quantity might have been slightly larger. I just think it's funny how many gifts it looks like she got compared to everybody else.

Daddy was good this year. He got a North Face pullover, a new Nike cap, a couple of movies (Katy Perry!), some pajama bottoms, and some Hershey Kisses.

Mama was VERY good! She got a new blanket, slippers, potholders, a beautiful picture frame, a Hobby Lobby gift card, and a plane ticket to Portland, Oregon, to visit her brother, sister-in-law and baby niece.

I fixed our traditional dinner of steak, party potatoes, green bean casserole, macaroni and cheese, and rolls. We invited my parents back over to eat dinner before they got ready to leave for their week in Florida. We cleaned the kitchen, again, and got ready for bed. Brynne crashed at 7:30 p.m. Dawson was feeling under the weather so he spent the evening in his room (mostly on his new laptop). Eli played with his wrestling toys from his birthday and then played new video games. I went to bed by 9:00 and Rick stayed up to watch some t.v.

Today Dawson woke up sick. We took the little kids to Subway for lunch. Eli watched his new WWE Survivor Series dvd (three hours worth!). I spent the afternoon doing massive amounts of laundry, and Rick and Brynne did a little dancin' to Just Dance 4.

This was a wonderful and joyful Christmas season! But, I am ready for my hibernation period that begins January 2nd. Ahhhh ..... Talk about JOY!