Christmas

We woke up and Mother Nature did not disappoint.  We had our first white Christmas!

The kids were super excited, of course.We decided this year that we would watch everyone open gifts, not the adults but the kids.  And they did well, being patient and opening things so that we could all see what everyone got.

Well, Santa's gift, we let them all tear into.  So, Ben got this Lego set that he never before mentioned, but wrote Santa a note at about 10 PM on the 23rd.  Um, I didn't think he wanted this Lego set.  And since Ben doesn't read my blog, I can write freely.  We looked on Amazon and knew it wouldn't come in time.  We weren't planning on going anywhere on Christmas Eve, so how was Santa going to bring this gift to Ben?  Well, David woke up on Saturday morning and drove to Walmart and got one of three sets that they had left.  Ben never even knew he left the house.  David wins Dad of the year.

Rio liked the boxes.  We got one of those laser pointers for him which he likes too.

The boys got gaming chairs from Grammie and Grampie.

And Emily really wanted a guitar, but I kept telling her it was too expensive.  So, she was super surprised when she opened this.  

And David was more than happy to try it on.

She looks so cute!

And this was our front yard this morning.  So peaceful and perfect.

I got a foot spa bath for Christmas, but I couldn't take off my toenail polish since I just painted my fingernails, so David did it for me.  He's a keeper!

And he took the kids sledding while I cleaned up the Christmas chaos!

We have a ham and potatoes in the oven and it's been a perfect peaceful Christmas!

Christmas Eve

We had a pretty chill Christmas Eve, which suits me just fine.  It was nice to not be out on the roads or dealing with crazy traffic on the interstate.  We planned to go to church, but that didn't happen.  Instead, it snowed...and snowed...and snowed.  It started with just a little bit.

But, it kept coming...

At this point, I was getting excited as I thought I might have my first white Christmas!

Even Rocko was loving it....

Noah came in to warm up with some hot cocoa and we are dog sitting for our friends.  She liked the electric blanket!  She's no fool!

Then, it really started to come down and all the kids went out to play.

Noah and Emily built this cute snowman.

And Noah rolled this huge snowball.  I don't know how he did it as it weighed more than him.

They played and had fun.

And by the time the boys came in, their cheeks were bright red and snot was dripping out their noses.  That's how you know they had a good time.

Then, the snow stopped, but it started back up and boy did it look so pretty in the Christmas lights.

It was so nice that we all piled in the car and drove around looking at the lights and the snow.

And we watched it's a wonderful life.
It was a wonderful Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve Eve

We always do something with my side of the family on Christmas Eve.  But, David's sister and her family have come the last few years on Christmas Eve, so we started doing our celebration on Christmas Adam.  We headed down to Phoenix yesterday to celebrate.  

Here's Auna and Tiffany.

Even sweet little Katie Sue had a Christmas sweater on.

Here's my Mom with Mike and Rory.  They are my Aunt Billie's (Mom's sister) boys.

Me and my brother.

Katie got a gift card to the movies since she likes to go to the movies.

The kids were so excited to open gifts.  We are trying to do a slower Christmas morning where we take turns opening gifts, so it's not a 15 minute frenzy and then over.  But, if last night was preview, we are doomed.

Suzy's daughter Nikki made this beautiful frame with my sister's picture in the middle and then roses from her memorial service around it.  It was such a thoughtful gift.

Here's me and my Momma.

And my beautiful Mom and Emily.

Here's Suzy's daughter Nikki and her daughter Amanda.

And my Dad and Suzy.

Noah got some new pajamas.  He's a ninja turtle, but kind of looks like Gumby!

It was a great visit and I'm so thankful my Dad and Suzy host this every year for us.  Unfortunately, Gwynne wasn't feeling great, so she stayed home.  I feel bad that she feels bad, but hopefully, she'll bounce back quickly.

First Sleepover with Ellie

Emily met Ellie in Kindergarten in 2009.  It was her first friend she made without any involvement from me. Ellie's family moved to Mesa after Kindergarten.

Here they are back in 2009.

The girls kept in touch through technology, Skype, Instagram, Snapchat.  They've been wanting a sleepover for years, but it's hard when they live 2 hours away.  Every time her family was coming up here to Prescott last summer, we were gone camping or Canada.  It just never worked out.  But then, they came up Thursday for the night.  A didn't think it would work out at first since Emily still had school on Friday.  But, all of Emily's grades were in by Thursday and Friday was a half day, so they go to each class for like 22 minutes.  I figured, she could miss it.

So, these two sweet 12 year old friends who met when Emily was 4, got to have their first sleepover.  

I'm so glad they've been able to maintain this friendship over the years.

Ben's Christmas Concert

Ben's music concert for school is the night after Noah's.  They break up the 7 grades into two nights and it's still chaos there.  This is Ben and his best bud Andrew.  Ben about killed me because the flash kept going off and I took like 10 photos.  I'm embarrassing. I don't care.

Then, they all filed in and Ben gets smack dab behind the tallest girl in the front row.  It never fails.  So, I spent the first part of their song, jumping seats all over the auditorium trying to see him.  It was probably comical.  I'm embarrassing.  I don't care.  :)

And we were rushing out the door again, so Ben's picture came after we got home.

Here's Ben's songs:

Now, we just have to get through one more day of school and we are off! I've been super prepared this year and had every gift under the tree and wrapped weeks ago. I like feeling being prepared, and now I can sit back and enjoy Christmas. And even better, our forecast is for a white Christmas, which we've never had!