Christmas!!! *december 24th & 25th*

On Christmas Eve Rosie brought us Mickey's Christmas Carol. Sam loved the special features and loves that Donald Duck "talk funny".  Elese was excited to see that Rosie finished the necklace Elese was making for her. Max enjoyed his special water and candy (he didn't like the candy but couldn't stop talking about the water) that Isaac brought him as a gift the night before (23rd). I watched my family video with Christmas' from when I was a kid and it made me love and miss my dad he was his best self on Christmas. I can't believe it's been 10 years since he passed away. Olivia's first tooth came in today.  We went to Steven's parents for linner and gifts.  While we were there we did the nativity. Liv was the perfect baby Jesus.

Elese played Mary and had a pregnant belly.

 Max (Joseph) wasn't feeling 100%. Samuel was a cute little lamb.

Sam loved his Gordon train and got really mad when Erinn called him Thomas. Elese got another Barbie set that she was sure she wouldn't get because it was so much money (Shhh...I picked them up for her Grandma's when I saw them on a really good sale).

Mark called on Skype just as I was walking out the door so I stopped to say "hi."  We went to my friend Lindsey's Bon fire and she was happy to hold Liv and Nannette (her mom) was a great help with the other kids while Steven and Robert talked outdoors. Sam was clearly feeling better because he ate like 3 hot dogs.

 We came home and opened Jammie's and new pillows for the kids.  We read 'Twas the night before Christmas and skiped reading from the bible since we had just done the nativity a few hours earlier.

Then the kids went right to bed all in boys' room (well - except for Olivia).

 We've trained them well. Once Jammies are on they can hardly wait to get in bed so they can close their eyes and wake up to Christmas.

On Christmas morning the kids woke up at 4:30 and waited for it to be 6:00 (or so they claimed). I just learned the other day that Max and Elese have an agreement. If one of them wakes up before they other one then they will wake up the other and watch the clock together. That way if someone blinks then one of them will see the clock change to 6:00. The moment the clock said 6:00am they ran right in.

(clearly Steven was super excited about waking up)

I woke and changed Liv.  Steven checked to see if Santa came. Sam was to go in first but insisted that Steven carry him. He was happy to see his train and instantly started playing.

 Max and Elese were happy to get their desks but not trilled and Elese said, "Where's my pink techno?"

 That was another thing she asked for. Olivia didn't really know what to think about everything but she seemed happy enough.

 Sam was to open the first gift. (Because Liv only had one). He flipped out, threw it, and refused to open it. We decide that he thought he had to get rid if his train if he opened another present. Once he saw Max and Elese opening their gifts he decided to open some. Before opening each gift he would say, "Dusty!"  I thought he would be disappointed when it wasn't dusty but he wasn't and he shouted, "Superman! Batman! Ninja Turtle!" And finally "Dusty!"  Max was super excited about his...um...Pacific Rim action figure...

Mom and Blake came by.

Steven got a punching bag. I got a wardrobe, shirts and lots of nice kitchen stuff including a deep fryer!  It's a bit of a pain to make photo books for the kids each year but they really do love them.  It's always fun to get them in the mail and to review the year. It helps me remember how much fun we have together and how much I love them.

After all the fun at our house we went to Heumann's for brunch, came home tried to get Sam to nap. Steven and I napped a little and so did Liv while the big kids played.

Although we didn't realize it at the time this would be the last year we would have our Christmas celebration at my moms house. Olivia got this super cute outfit from Jessica.

David and Tyler were planning to leave Sacramento the next day but they were having a hard time celebrating without Stephanie so they decided to leave right then and come visit a day early. We were really excited to see them and had a great time with them while they were here.