Christmas!

“Christmas comes but once a year, now it’s here, now it’s here!  Bringing lots of joy and cheer, tra-la-la-la-la.” 

Isn’t Christmas just so exciting?  I love that very first moment when the kids come out and see the pile of presents under the tree for the first time.  And as they excitedly look for what Santa brought them.  It’s as close to magic as anything I can thing of:)

Santa brought James a basketball hoop, Leah a little grocery cart with play food, and Annie a new bike!

Bike Girls:

Digging through their stockings:

Christmas was a little different this year since it was on a Sunday.  We had church at 10:00, and with 22 people in the house needing to shower and get ready, we didn’t have time to open any presents before church.  We all got ready amazingly fast and had a wonderful musical program at church.  There were a lot of people home for Christmas in the Saratoga Ward, so it was fun to see and catch up with old friends. 

We came home, and of course wanted to take some pictures before changing out of our church clothes!  The kids were such good sports, especially since there was a huge pile of presents under the tree just waiting to be opened!  My mom bought the girls these adorable outfits. 

Best Friends! 

We also didn’t have time for our traditional Christmas breakfast of German pancakes before church, so we whipped them up for lunch when we got home.  Still putting off the presents . . . . we were starving, and thought it would be best if we ate before beginning the madness:)  I manned the pancake station, and Michael made us some seriously good bacon in the microwave!  And Brigham whipped us up some delicious scrambled eggs he learned how to make at Facebook!  haha.

Ashley is our smoothie queen!

Grandma and Grandpa came for lunch.  We loved having them!

And FINALLY, when we were all changed, full, and pictured out, we could focus all of our attention to this:

We had a wonderful afternoon of opening presents.  We didn’t get too many pictures because our camera was seriously dying throughout the day (more on that later).  And somehow we lost our video camera the night before after all the festivities. (Dan and I spent from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m. looking for it, so we’d have it on Christmas, but couldn’t find it anywhere.)  But we managed to get a few last pictures out of our camera.

Santa brought the girls a set of princess barbies!  They were really excited about these.

And Grandma Walton gave Flynn Ryder to Leah and Snow White’s Prince to Annie.  Thanks, Grandma!

My mom got her picture book Steph gets her every year.  She loves them!

Dan and I made my dad a “Bishop’s Birthday Bin” with birthday coupons for the primary to hand out to the kids on their birthday.  The kids take their coupon to the bishop and redeem it for a candy bar.  He loved it!

Annie and Leah got James this Mickey Mouse.  He is really into Mickey these days!

Dan surprised me with a Coach purse!  I hadn’t even hinted at wanting one:)  Love that guy!

Brigham got Steph one too, not even knowing that Dan was getting me one!  Although she had hinted it to him.  But do we have awesome husbands, or what??

And what did I get Dan?  An I-Pad!  Although don’t get too excited for him, because a few days later, he decided to return it and the jacket I got him from BR, and instead bought a brand new camera, because ours was just not going to make it.  He’s really excited about his new camera though! 

Phew!  That was exhausting!  The kids got a lot of fun stuff, and Dan and I made out pretty good as well:)

And after all that, we cleaned up, made some side dishes for dinner, and made our way over to Mike and Beth’s for a delicious turkey dinner.  It was an awesome Christmas.  It was definitely not a relaxing day with it being a Sunday, but it was great to be able to go to church and to really remember and focus on the reason we celebrate all this in the first place.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve morning/afternoon was all about baking and decorating cookies . . . .

James sure knew how to do it!  First, spread on some frosting. 

Then add candy, sprinkles, whatever. 

Then dig in!

Leah hard at work on her masterpieces.

I made one . . . . this one.

Christmas Eve night we all went to my grandparents’ house.  It’s our tradition:)  First we have dinner.

This is about half the group.

Our traditional Christmas appetizer . . . . Candy Cane Popcorn.  My mom always makes it (or someone at my mom’s house:)

We always have a Honey Baked Ham for Christmas Eve dinner.  Yumm-o!

These carrots my Grandpa made were a new recipe . . . . a welcomed addition to the menu!   

And here we go again, trying to get a picture of all the little boys.  You would think Grant would be getting used to this by now . . . . but no.  He will NOT be a part of the baby boys!  It’s going to be so funny one day having all these pictures.

After dinner we always congregate in the living room to read the Christmas story and sing Christmas hymns.  My Grandpa always conducts and my mom plays the piano.  I just love spending Christmas Eve at my grandparents’ house.   

This year my Grandpa put together a little game for the end of the program.  We had fun trying to think of which Christmas songs answered the riddles.  Example: “Sir Lancelot with laryngitis.”  Silent Night:)          

Then we move the party to the family room for present exchanging.  I thought this picture was funny because I have no idea who took it, since Dan and I are both in it:)

My grandma got all the little kids these cute little teddy bears.

Stephanie gave everyone a very special gift this year.  She interviewed my Grandma and asked her questions about all her childhood photos and her life in Germany and then arranged it all into a book.  My grandma loved it and so did everyone else.  Thank you so much, Steph.  I know we’ll all treasure this book.  

Later in the evening, Russ got out this old jacket that belonged to my grandfather’s grandfather, David A. Krogue.  (My grandpa’s mother was Leah Louise Krogue, who Leah is named after, and David was her father.)  I thought it would be cute to take pictures of James in it.  So, this is James’s great-great-great-grandfather’s coat.  Pretty cool, eh?  It’s a very warm coat.  My grandpa said he wore it when he was young for 8 years while doing his paper route in Manti, Utah.  And my mom said she used to wear it to high school football games!  It’s in amazing condition for how old it is and how much wear it’s gotten!     

Then back home to my parents house for some more Christmas Eve fun.  The kids performed a song for us they had been practicing . . . . “Grandpa got ran over by a reindeer” and then they dog-piled my dad.

And we tried to get a picture of all the grandkids in their matching Christmas pajamas . . . . this is the best we got.  We’re not very good at this:)

We always do our sibling and cousin gift exchanges on Christmas Eve . . . . to make it a little more special and not just thrown in with all the other presents in the morning.  This year, Leah had Scotty and Annie had Emily.  They got them each a pillow pet!  And Scotty got Halle a pillow pet too!  And my girls brought their pillow pets so they wouldn’t be left out:)

Leah unwrapped her present from Emily and exclaimed very loudly, “What!  Wheat Thins??”

Nope, not wheat thins!  An adorable Hello Kitty hat and some yummy smelling markers.  Thanks, Ems!

Halle had Annie and got her 2 games!  And then we did our sibling exchange.  I guess we didn’t get any pictures, but Brigham got me The Elf on the Shelf!  (I’ve been wanting it for a long time now:)  And my brother, Jeff, got Dan the game Dominion (after asking me what Dan might like:)  It’s a new favorite among the Waltons, so I knew we wouldn’t want to be left behind!  And let’s see, I got John a SF Giants hat and Dan got Steph some camera equipment (tripod, remote, and lens cleaner). 

Cookies and milk for Santa!  And carrots for the reindeer.

Hmmm, looks like the kids ate all the frosted ones . . . . oh well, Santa won’t mind. 

Everyone (all 22 of us) spent the night at my parents’ house on Christmas Eve so we could all be together for Christmas morning!  So exciting!!!

Everything all ready for the morning!!