The Young and the Restless

A very merry Christmas indeed!

6:00 am.  Not a minute earlier, not a minute later.  Jayden's mad because I made him take a picture before running downstairs to see if the Jolly man really did come.

He soon forgave me and was so excited that Santa brought him an electric scooter.  Only too bad that it wouldn't charge.  And then too bad that after a week the new charger they sent us still didn't work.  And then too bad that it's January 7th and he still has to wait for another week for a new battery to come.  Hopefully some day he can enjoy his main gift.  I feel like we spent the next few days after Christmas on the phone with customer service.  Maddox's train didn't work so they said they would send us a new one, only they sent us a random part on the train track and not the train, so we're still waiting for that.  And the fat sack I got for Jason (it's a wakeboarding thing, don't google it, trust me) was missing a part for the pump, such a bummer!  Anyways.....

This was the moment I was waiting the last several months for.  It's rare that the kids are genuinely surprised on Christmas.  They give Santa their wish list and EXPECT the gift, since that's what Santa does (so much pressure!).  This year Kylie has been begging for an itouch and we convinced her it was too much money and she was too young. And lucky for us she knows about Santa so she couldn't pull that card. She cried, she bribed, she groveled, she did everything in her power to convince us to get her one. Somewhere along the way we changed our minds and decided to do it (for future reference, Kylie, it was not the crying that changed our minds! :).  She was not expecting it at all and the look on her face when Jason pulled out an itouch from the Santa bag was priceless. 

she immediately tackled Jason to the ground after this picture. 

it has not left her side ever since and it's fun that she can facetime her friends and cousins.

Maddox loves his playhouse.  We ended up putting it on the side of the house in the "forest" and I love watching him play with his friends and Kylie & Jayden in it.  They have this whole camping scene set up and they literally play there for hours, remind me to take a picture of it.

He also loves his "tinger toys", although instead of making robots and cars like I had envisioned, he makes swords and guns and hits everything and everyone.

Poor Ryder.  I don't think, okay, I know we didn't get him any real presents. I kind of went around the house on Christmas eve and found random things to give him...diapers, wipes, baby food.  We stuck his name on some of Maddox's gifts also so that we didn't feel quite as guilty.  He was just as happy with the wrapping paper anyways.

The Christmas carnage.  The only day of the year that I let the house go (until about 5:00 and then I can't stand the mess anymore).  Here's the loot list: Kylie-itouch, itouch cover, itunes gift card, Toms shoes, slippers (from Jayden), nail polish (from Maddox), clothes; Jayden-electric scooter, Pharoah's lego set, Pyramid lego game, Super Mario wii, basketball (from Kylie), magic card set (from Maddox), basketball shoes; Maddox- playhouse, tinker toys, remote control car, Thomas train set, Thomas block set, Thomas book and playset, play food (from Kylie and Jayden) ; Ryder-diapers, wipes, books, music CD, spoons (from Kylie), baby food (from Jayden), binkies (from Maddox); Jason- clothes, snowboarding goggles, church shoes, fat sack, grill plank & seasoning (thanks Tyson!); me- snowboard, snowboard pants and gloves, exercise clothes, slippers, boots, clothes, super cute camera strap (thanks Dawn!); family- DVD player for the car, games, cute & soft blanket throw (thanks mom!). Spoiled.

Yet another wonderful Christmas come and gone.  We let the kids open the Santa gifts before church and then I loved that we got to attend church and remember the birth of our Savior (I didn't love that it was at 8am, though).  It was a beautiful musical program and helped to really set the mood for the rest of the day.  We went home and spent the rest of the morning opening gifts (my favorite is watching the kids open the gifts from each other, they are so proud and excited), eating a big Christmas brunch, playing with toys and eating a delicious roast dinner. It was a perfect Christmas, I wouldn't change a thing (okay, except that all the gifts actually worked!)