{Christmas 2012}

We had a wonderfully quiet Christmas this year.  It was low key, with nowhere to scurry off to.  Ryan's Mom & Greg made it back from Williamsburg (which was awesome) to spend Christmas Eve and part of Christmas day with us.  The kids loved having family here to share the holiday with.  We even got a treat.  A light dusting of snow, when we weren't expecting any snow at all.

Christmas Eve we played a rousing game of Apples to Apples.  We decorated sugar cookies to leave out for Santa.  We opened up our pajamas and took some pretty embarrassing pictures under the tree (I am protecting the offending parties by not posting those particular ones).  We read from the scriptures the story of the birth of the Savior.  The kids had fun using our puppets to help tell the story.  The kids ended the night by writing their thank you letters to Santa.  Then finally it was off to bed.

Our eldest child had a hard time sleeping this year.  I think he was up three times between 3am and 6:45am. At 6:45 he finally went downstairs with his sisters and then waited for the rest of us to make it out of bed.  The girls got American Girl dolls.  They were REALLY happy!!  Can't you tell by Lauryn's hair!!  Wyatt got a little iPod shuffle so he can leave Mom's alone.  That kid loves music and listens to it each night while going to bed.  Ayden got laser tag sets (which I didn't get a picture of for some reason) and Legos.  He is pretty easy to please.

By 7:45 all the gifts were opened and we were wading through a sea of wrapping paper and ribbons.  The kids were playing blissfully with their presents and Ryan, I, Margaret and Greg were able to open our gifts in peace.  Then we enjoyed breakfast and sadly had to say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa.  We really enjoyed spending time with them.

We feel immensely blessed and fortunate this year.  We are happy and healthy and have far more than what we need.  Merry Christmas!!