Actually, backing up to a couple of things I forgot pre-Christmas. Tyler went golfing with my dad and Tim and they had a fun time.
While the younger kids were napping, Millie, Max, and I made paper snowflakes!
We hung our creations in the living room.
Thanks to Gigi and Poppy, Tyler and I got to sneak away for a date. We got Torchy’s for dinner and tried a yummy cheesecake place for dessert and it was an all-around delicious night! I love the Christmas tree at the boardwalk. And any chance I can get to have a date with my man.
Now finally on to Christmas Eve! We headed up to the Woodlands almost first thing for Grammy’s party. I was awful at taking pictures but we had so much fun! Yummy food, fun games, and great company. We were excited to see Heidi, James, Wes, and Claire back from Indiana again! Wes was so cute with Hazel.
Tyler and Poppy took the kids down to see the fish and they loved waving to us from down there.
When we got back to Gigi and Poppy’s house Poppy shared a sweet Christmas message with us. The kids loved reading all of the names used for Christ in the scriptures.
Then the kids got to open their presents from Gigi and Poppy! I took zero pictures of this, in part because I was just enjoying the happiness, and then in part because it was all hands on deck opening packages. After playing with their new toys a bit it was time to say goodnight and head to Monka and Umpa’s.
We got there just in time for dinner. Sarah had arrived the night before from Idaho and we were excited to see her! And admire the way she folded the napkins for dinner. So cute. I also loved seeing the little snowman place card holders that my mom has pulled out every Christmas for a lot of years.
After dinner we re-enacted the nativity. Since we didn’t have very many people some of us had multiple parts and I really struggled to play the piano as we sang, but it was so fun nonetheless. I think my favorite part was when Max played Samuel the Lamanite. He was so cute reciting his part and then we all threw marshmallows at him, laughing when we remembered we were supposed to miss! Then Max started eating the marshmallows and we laughed even harder. Sarah threw a marshmallow directly into Tyler’s mouth which was just the icing on the cake.
Not pictured was the insane array of desserts Mom made. We could tell she missed being here at Thanksgiving and was making up for it in baking for Christmas. Chocolate dream dessert, pretzel salad, apple pie, pumpkin bars, and carrot cake! Too much goodness to just choose one or two.
We ate and played and watched the first half of the BYU football bowl game before going home.
We got home and the kids were anxious to go to bed, but not before the kids wrote a quick note for Santa. I had just started preheating the oven to bake some cookies real fast and then Tyler showed me these notes! So funny.
Christmas morning! Harvey came into our bed sometime in the night (per usual) but the big kids were awake and listening to Christmas music by 6:30. They were so patient to wait another hour, when I woke Harvey up and they went to see what Santa brought!
Max had asked Santa for one of those big cars you sit in and ride, but Santa thought a cool remote control car was a good compromise. It even can go in the water!
Millie made me a really cool calendar with her own works of art at the top of each month. I can’t wait to use it!
Santa brought Millie a doll pet groomer set.
Max was also excited about the golf clubs he got from Mom and Dad.
I neglected to get any pictures of Harvey because he was so busy running around the playing! Santa brought him a Scar stuffed animal and some alphabet transformer robots from Mom and Dad. Hazel woke up about an hour after the big kids and was very excited about her walker from Santa and her noise machine from Mom and Dad (ha!).
The kids were so nice to pause for a couple pictures for me. Harvey had not wanted to put on his Christmas jammies the night before so I hadn’t gotten a pic of all of them in their jammies together yet.
The realities of taking pictures with kids sometimes.
Worth it though!
Monka, Umpa, and Sarah came over later in the morning and we made French toast for breakfast. We finished opening gifts with them and everyone got to play for a bit. We watched The Grinch (and some of us fell asleep). Tim and Lauren came over in the afternoon and we had a late lunch, then headed to the park! It was a beautiful day and we had lots of fun playing outside. Gigi and Poppy stopped by for a few minutes too. We were all laughing at Harvey, who somehow had ripped a hole in the bottom of his shorts while playing!
We went back home and heated up some leftovers for dinner, then watched The Santa Clause while working on a puzzle.
Millie got a sewing machine from Gigi and Poppy! Monka gave her a little sewing lesson and Millie was so excited about it. She can’t wait to learn more.
After putting the kids to bed we played “The Game of Things” before everyone went home. It was a Christmas to remember!
