Christmas 2007...24 hours of presents, fudge, tantrums, and meaningful family time

Christmas eve, the longest day of the year! It seems like one or more child was constantly asking the time, and or complaining about how slowly the day was passing. To pass some time and take their minds off the holiday festivities we took them into Portland and went to the Kennedy school to watch the Bee movie. There's just nothing better than snuggling on comfy couches eating french fries and watching a movie. When we got home it was time to start making dinner, sushi, compliments of Paul. Then we let the celebrating begin.
We always let the kids open one present on Christmas eve.


Look! New jammies!

I have to admit that this picture of Grayson and the nativity is deceptively sweet looking. We always read the Christmas story from the scriptures on Christmas eve, and talk about the real meaning of Christmas. This year I think the boys had just reached their limit on containing their excitement and good behavior. At this point the kids were all pretty grumpy with each other and on the verge of a very toxic meltdown. Lets just say the evening did not end well.

Oh, and on a side note, the boys left some of Grandma's fudge out for Santa. Unfortunately they didn't push the plate back far enough and Buster helped himself to all three pieces while we were tucking the boys in. So Paul and I got to spend some time doing a little research on how much chocolate dogs can ingest before you really need to worry. Luckily he was just fine, and will live to frustrate me another day!

We woke very early, thanks to Rowan deciding that 5:30 was a good time to wake everyone up. The first order of business was seeing what Santa had brought. I don't know what Santa was thinking, but he brought the boys a Wii, and as far as they were concerned it was pretty much a Christmas miracle. They instantly pronounced it the best Christmas ever. Santa also brought Rowan a new big boy bike, which he wants nothing to do with. He wouldn't look at or touch it or anything. In fact all he would say about it was, "put it in the garage!" We're hoping it will grow on him, but the reaction was a little disappointing!



Opening presents is just so much fun!




The aftermath of all the present opening was not pretty, but check out my wonderful new Santa. And as much as I love this Santa, my favorite present was actually the Flip video camera that Paul gave me. I am having way too much fun playing with that. Be prepared for lots of video clips coming to the blog very soon!



After a morning of presents and mayhem at our own house we moved the celebration over to my parents house. We all got way too spoiled and had so much fun. I think this picture is about the only time all three kids were standing still all day!



These are two of my favorite people in the whole world, my parents. Of course they totally spoiled all of us way too much, and we had a fabulous day with them!


These are two of my other favorite people, my favorite brother Jim and his lovely wife Enid. I know Jim is my only brother, but even if I had another one he'd probably still be my favorite. They are very good sports with all of the boys' craziness, helping them build their toys, and dealing with being hit in the head with Nerf darts.


After feasting on my mom's delicious Christmas dinner Fuller and Grayson suited up and headed out into the trees behind my parents house for some NERF dart tag.


It's a good thing we had a retired engineer around to help with some of the building toys. With K'NEX, tinker toys, and lots and lots of LEGOs there's going to be lots of building going on!

All in all it was a wonderful holiday, and I'm sad that it's over! Luckily the boys got so many things to keep them busy, I don't think there will be any complaints of boredom this vacation!