We woke the kids up with Maddie's new "tradition" request...we blare the Christmas music in the house and wait for everyone to get out of bed. After one second of music playing Maddie jumped out of her room...she'd already been up, gotten dressed for church and tried to cover it up with her robe. So much for traditions...
We headed downstairs where we opened stockings. The dog was not to be left out!
We got back from church and took some quick pictures. I really need a self-timer so we can take a family shot!
Good looking kids!
Mike and Jake had special ties for Christmas.
And of course...us girls couldn't be left out!
We flew upstairs to change into clothes (though Jake tried to convince us to skip that and just open gifts all dolled up...). We flew back downstairs to rip into the goodies!
I absolutely love all the expressions that come with Christmas gift opening...
There's the frustrated...this was great because we refused to help her and she was kept occupied for quite awhile!
The surprised...
The relieved...
And we have our traditions of reusing bows...we're so green!
We all have to save our "big" gifts for last to open. This year Mike got me a Nook Reader!
I gave Mike a Roku this year. It streams something for the t.v. Of course, the day after I bought this for him he told me, "Should anyone be buying me a Roku, they might also consider looking at the Blu-Ray from Sam's Club. I can't decide which I like better." I decided for him and kept the Roku I'd already gotten on sale.
I was very excited for each of the kids' gifts this year.
First up was Jake. We generally use some pretty weird boxes to wrap gifts. Most are leftover from other packages and a lot are leftover from electronic stuff Mike has delivered here. Hence, we never can trust what is actually on the outside of the box.
Jake proceeded to start opening his gift and said, "Oh look - I got a camera just like Maddie got."
Then he opened the box..."Wait a minute..."
It was all charged up and ready to go!
Here's another face I love at Christmas...anticipation!
I think she was pretty shocked at what she found...
This year she got a phone for Christmas. I believe her exact words were, "This is SO. DANG. COOL!"
After our house we headed to my parents' to celebrate the day with my family. We started with our traditional family picture.
This took three takes and each one had some flaws, but that's how we are right now. Lots of little kids means you just never know what you are going to get!
As bribery Tracy had told everyone that when the good picture was taken we could take a silly picture with stuffed animals...
That could be my new favorite picture!
Then it was all hands on deck as stockings and presents were passed out. Some of us were more excited than others...
Gifts were opened one at a time so we could actually see what everyone got which is always nice!
I'll speak for myself, but I'm always wondering if my mom is really going to like her gift. But every year she's as excited to get an iron (from my brother this year) as she is to get the massage pillow (my sister). Seriously - equally ecstatic over each (they both had three stars on her Christmas list!). And whoever got her the coffee...well, we know my parents are addicted to coffee...
We had general onlookers amidst the paper tossing...
Tracy and Rob got a special gift this year...the tree skirt they have been waiting multiple years for.
Even with our fairly organized way of gift opening...it's a mess afterward!
After gift opening came to a close we hung out and played...
We drank...
(That's not a thermos. It's an actual cocktail mixer. It holds about a gallon of booze. We managed to not waste any.)
My nieces had gotten "Just Dance 3" for Christmas and there were several dance-offs!
And that took up the majority of our day. We played games, we ate a lot of food, we visited and we laughed a lot. A really great day spent with some of my favorite people!
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