Merry Christmas!

Friday, December 25th--What a wonderful Christmas! Elise and Brady were awake and ready to tear into gifts by 6:45 am. We brought them into our room and turned on the TV for a while as we waited for my parents to sleep a little longer and my sister, Alishia, and her family were driving to our house so we wanted to wait for them as well. By 7:30 Nate would like to say the kids were impatient and just wanted to look in their stockings but I think it was Nate that wanted to get things going. My sister was almost here and my parents slowly made their way upstairs to our family room so we let the kids look at their stockings. There was plenty to look at as Santa, Nana and Alishia went CRAZY with stocking stuffers! By the time Elise & Brady had gone through their stockings everyone was here and settled in. My niece, Samantha and nephew, Jacob went through their stockings next. I got the "Favorite Aunt of the Year" award by finding Jacob's much-coveted Barack Obama Chia Pet. He had talked about wanting one for weeks and he couldn't find one anywhere. I got lucky a few days before and found one at a Smiths Marketplace. The look on his face in the pic is priceless! I haven't seen him that happy in a very long time! YES! Alishia got the "Favorite Aunt of the Year" award when she found some hard-to-find Zhu-Zhu Pets. Elise had talked about wanting one for a while and I knew they were hard to get so I didn't even put forth any effort to look. They were quite happy to open their Zhu-Zhu Pets (wow, they're obnoxious little things! that's just my opinion!)

Alishia unloaded all the gifts she brought and, HOLY MOLY, there were so many gifts under and around our tree! Nate and I set a budget every year for how much we spend on each other and our kids. This year we found some really great deals so they had quite a few gifts. By the 6th or 7th gift Elise and Brady would unwrap their gifts and toss them into the pile. They almost seemed bored. So next year we will change things up a little! Brady got several Lego sets from Santa and Elise got some cute stuffed puppies and a fish tank. They also got clothes, movies, books, DS games and a few more toys. Elise & Brady had also bugged me to NO END for Snuggies. I found some on sale and so I caved and the looks on their faces were so worth it! They wanted them on right away!

Nate got a fancy toothbrush, some books, slippers, and a few other things. I got some Wizard of Oz stuff, shoes (yes, Christmas Shoes.....and they were just my size! ha ha ha), As-Seen-On-TV stuff, a book about LDS Temples, CDs and a few other things. As a family gift we got Disney's Dance, Dance Revolution for Wii and some movies. At the end of our unwrapping my sister and her husband, Shad, had two more gifts to give. They were for Nate and my dad. They each got a...........Speedo! LOL! Both were great sports about it. My dad even put his on over his pants. It was quite funny! Of course they better wear them next time we make our way down to Lake Powell or Bear Lake---just like Shad did!

After we cleaned up all the wrapping paper and messes we fixed up a huge, delicious breakfast. Shad made his famously delicious cinnamon pull-aparts and then we cooked up waffles, bacon, eggs and sausage. It was filling and none of us wanted to eat again till dinner time. Alishia and family left to go have dinner at their house. We cooked up a ham and taters for ourselves and my parents. Our Christmas day was laid-back and stress-free......just what I wanted!