christmas day 2010

it was a great day!
our day has taken on a rhythm and we love it.

first, we do the stockings.
i love asking people how they "do" stockings! everyone does it differently!
we don't wrap anything in the stockings...AND not everything fits in the stocking...some stuff is by it :-)
it's usually pj's, little fun stuff like chapstick and gum and things we need to replenish like reams of white paper and markers and crayons.

we were blessed unexpectedly a couple days before christmas and instead of being "responsible" with it all, i went to target and bought us EACH a nerf gun for our stockings!
they were a HIT!
my kitchen floor looks like that one picture most of the time...but they've been played with SO much!
i LOVE the stockings...it has always been my favorite part.

oh, and at one point in the morning, i didn't see joshua.
he was in the other room. by himself. working on the lego's he got the day before.
love that kid...

at breakfast we asked them what their favorite thing in their stocking was:
rebekah - the sticker maker (that we won at a white elephant with our bible study group!)
joshua - the nerf gun
bailey - her princess folder

after we go through and play with our stockings, we make a BIG breakfast - monkey bread, biscuits, eggs, bacon, sausage. we all help and do it together. AND it was snowing most of the time we were cooking and eating which was SO fun!

after we clean up from breakfast, we do the candle...read the story of Christmas from the Bible...do our last ornament from the "Adornaments"...and this year, open and share our gifts to Jesus. it was precious. i LOVED this part. they loved sharing what they chose to buy. keeping it a surprise from each other was perfect and made it extra fun!

then we open gifts. they each get 3: one is clothes, one is a book/game, and one is a toy.
pat got a tent...so i've committed to camping again :-)

and...we had one more BIG gift for them all. this was all pat. he talked me into it. i fought it all the way.
he made up a scavenger hunt for them to find it.
there's a video after the pictures if you want to see the whole thing (warning: it's almost 5 minutes long!)
it's pretty cute. i admit to tearing up with happiness at their joy...wow...

joshua has been asking for this since last christmas.
it'll be one of those christmases he always remembers :-)
so thankful to be able to do that for them...

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we regrouped (it took until about 2 pm to get to this point!), cleaned up and got ready for my parents and brother to come over for dinner!
we went "mexican"- beef fajitas (with homemade tortilla's!), guacamole and fruit.
we played the wii and pictionary after dinner and just enjoyed being together.
we are celebrating with my whole family in a few days...once everyone is back in town...so there were NO gifts tonight which made it extra sweet! JUST enjoying each other!!!

it was a great day.
so fun to watch it all through our kids' eyes.
and i love doing it all with pat at my side.
sweet, sweet day...