Christmas in Arizona

This one is long - I use this as my journaling for scrapbooking so there is probably more detail than you need here!!

The kids actually slept in until 8:30 on Christmas morning. Well, actually it was Christmas Eve morning, but the kids didn't know any better. We couldn't believe it! We got up, showered and ate breakfast and headed over to my parents house. When we got to Margee and Dad's the boys wanted to rush in. Here they are in the doorway:

First they opened their stockings. For me stockings are the best part of Christmas. You never know what you are going to get. I almost always got an orange in the bottom of my stocking. It was a given, a tradition. For my boys the tradition is a new toothbrush and toothpaste. Kiera was very excited with her socks. And they all loved the Slinky's!Then it was present time. Since the trip to Arizona was expensive for all we decided that was our gift to all the adults and we didn't exchange. Chris and I decided not to exchange either. His gift was two rounds of golf. I was going to get a massage, but ran out of time. Chris surprised me though with tickets to two concerts, JoDee Messina and Phil Vassar. That was such a nice surprise. He told me he felt bad that I didn't have anything to open, which in turn made me feel bad because I didn't get him anything! I made a photo album for Margee and Dad of this summer's vacation and of course we all gave them photos of the grand kids and their kids and grand kids. Nathan also bought gifts for Chris, Nicholas and I at school.

Dad played Santa and he passed out one gift for each child at a time. Nathan cracked me up because after he opened each gift he put them in a neat pile. Nicholas tried to follow suit, but his pile kept falling over! After many of his gifts he exclaimed "This is what I always wanted. I really really really wanted this!" Kiera was very quiet (something foreign to us since we have two boys!) while she opened her gifts. She was so excited about a fairy-like skirt she got. She put it on and danced around the room. Orion had help from Daddy opening his gifts. He got lots of books and Daddy read them to him. He was fighting sleep most of the day and right before dinner he fell asleep in my arms. He is such a sweet baby.

Some of the biggest hits were the new Planet Heroes, of course. But the surprise gift they fought over was Wall-E that Nicholas got. Then after dinner we had a little concert in the family room. The boys got microphones and they sang for us. Kiera joined in too and it was quite comical.

And of course we got great family shots and one of all the grand kids. What good looking families we are!