Christmas!

On Christmas morning I got up at 6 and got showered so I would be ready and not rushed to get to church.  We woke the kids up at 6:30, they were totally crashed out and took us a minute to get them up.  But once they realized Santa had come they were wide awake.

Leila and Greydon checking out what was in their stockings

 Classic Greydon, he turned the stocking upside down and dumped everything out

Greydon asked Santa for pretty much anything and everything so Santa used his discretion and brought Greydon a balance bike and a Cars helmet.  He was pretty excited about his presents

Leila was pretty happy with her Razor scooter (it was all she was asking for)

Greydon got a bunch of trains and and train tracks from Connie, I think it might have been his favorite present.  We were really spoiled this year by Connie, she went above and beyond and got us a much desired Vitamix.  I love the blender and use it at least twice a day. 

Asher got this adorable pillow pet.  He was such a sleepy head and slept through all the present opening

Greydon is obsessed with scooters and had to take Leila's for a spin, he had just gotten out of the tub and saw an opportunity to steal it while Leila was still in the bath.

All dressed and ready to to go to church.  We actually had plenty of time to open presents, have breakfast and get to church.  I loved Christmas on Sunday and being able to go to church, it was a nice reminder of why we actually celebrate Christmas.  It gave us a chance to feel the spirit and not be so focused on the presents. 

After church we went to my parents house.  They were just getting ready to go to church so they let the grand kids open 1 present before they left.  They each got a Cars 2 shake car and they were a huge hit.   

While the kids played with the cars Paul and I relaxed on the couch.  I actually fell asleep but my nap didn't last long because pretty soon my parents and siblings were back home. 

My parents really spoiled us this year!  Greydon got a Cars 2 race track and Leila got a princess tent.  And Paul and I got a Samsung Galaxy tablet!  After all their wonderful presents to us the present we got them just didn't seem all that great so hopefully one day will be able to do more. 

We relaxed the rest of the afternoon at my parents house, had a yummy Christmas dinner of Prime Rib and worked on a puzzle.  That evening we went to Paul's dad's house to exchange gifts.  The kids were again spoiled and received a ton of gifts and clothes.  Paul's dad is an amazing cook and actually made us a cookbook of all of his favorite recipes and gave us our traditional tin of cookies (his dad use to work with Mrs. Fields and has all of her cookies recipes, not just the ones that are on the Internet but the actually recipes from her personal files).  We had a wonderful Christmas and definitely received way more than we deserve.  We are thankful to wonderful family members that help make Christmas wonderful for us and our kids especially since our budget has been pretty tight for the last couple of years.  We were worn out by the end of Christmas day, it was fun but really exhausting to make it to three different houses. 

On Monday we packed up which took several hours (three kids, two adults and Christmas presents is a ton of stuff).  The kids played with Mylee and Mari and then we went to my parents house to say goodbye.  We headed home around 7 pm and we were actually able to fit all of our stuff in our car for the first time, usually my parents have to bring some of our gifts down to us in January.  Luckily this time our kids slept the whole way home and then went straight to bed when we arrived. 

Asher loves his Daddy and always give him the biggest smiles

He also loved all the attention he was getting from his cousins and sister

We were packed in tight! Not an inch of space to spare, Paul and his mom did an excellent job packing the car.