MERRY CHRISTMAS 2008

I hope everyone had a great Christmas this year! Ours was fun and relaxing. On Christmas Eve Nana and Papa came over. We had a nice turkey dinner and visit. Even though we missed having ALL our family together and playing games with everyone, it was a perfectly pleasant Christmas Eve. :) Here are some pictures of that night.

We enjoyed sitting by the fire ;)

These are the totally awesome pillow cases Tori (my niece) made for the kids. The girls are sporting their new "Christmas Eve pj's" and if you look closely, you'll see that Brooke got frog pj's and pillow case :) She was so excited to be matching. And Becca was excited for her new "sleeping bag". She refused to put it on her pillow but did actually fit in it while watching tv lol. Kelsie started naming her butterflies and Shayna wouldn't get up for the picture cuz she was already laying on her new pillow :)

This is the Family Quilt I made for my parents. Family members colored on the white squares then I (with the girls help) sewed it all together. Its about 4x4 feet. In the middle is the brand for my parents ranch.
Gifts from Nana and Papa:
Then it was time to get the kids to bed so Santa could come. Kelsie and Brooke were asleep fairly quickly. Shay and Becca on the other hand were insanely hard to get to bed. It must have been 12-1 am before they were asleep. Shayna got crayons and pencils from my parents and spent the night making pictures for Santa and all the reindeer to take. It was very sweet and cute, but oi, I was tired. Brooke and Kelsie woke up at 2 AM. I let them open their santa gifts but I stayed in bed :). When I got up at 7 Brooke and Kel were asleep, spread out on top of their gifts in the living room. And Shay and Becca were on my bed with Mark. At about 8:30 everyone was awake and ready to open family gifts. We had our traditional cinnamon roll breakfast. Sorry, no more pics...I was living in the moment (aka: I totally forgot). By 10:30 we were ready to head off to Marks sisters house. Jared sent a gift for us. It is the BEST book ever. It is sooo funny, I recommend it to everyone..We had a great Christmas dinner with the Daveys and Marks parents. It was fun to be there with all the kids. Becca and Opa played Yahtzee for a couple of hours and had what looked like a meaningful conversation :) Its always so much fun to get together. The next day was more playing and the kids even got to help tear down wallpaper. Can't beat games and destruction ;) Now we are just hanging out at home, enjoying all our new gifts. (I got a beautiful teared platter set from Oma and am now in the process of planing our next party..who's around for New Years?!)

I am SO grateful to everyone who has helped us make this a wonderful celebration for my family! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!