Christmas 2014 In Review

Christmas has already come and past. How did that happen? I didn't blog all month! Eeek! So with out more delay, here's a highlight of our Christmas this year.

We started Christmas a *little* early this year, mostly because I didn't want to haul all the presents to my parents house. How lazy is that? But seriously, the car was packed with presents already and I hadn't even loaded up the gifts Grandma dropped off for us. I somehow convinced Perry that we needed to open them at our house, plus a few other miscellaneous ones too. 

 Promptly after dinner on the 23rd, the boys changed in to their jammies and we all gathered in the living room to open a couple gifts. The first gift Charlotte opened was from some family friends and was a bath time tea set. I'm always sitting in the wrong spot with the camera, but it was the cutest thing when she opened it - her face lit up and she said, "OH" about 20 times while holding it. 

 JP opted to open the big box with his name on it and found a large tub of gears inside. One of the boys received gears, last year? the year before? and enjoyed playing with them, but it was a small set so fighting was kind of inevitable. In the past week they've had a bunch of fun build stuff with all the extra gears they now have.

 Hunter unwrapped his present from Grandma and was given a baseball pitching machine. (I tried it out in the house. I missed the first two pitches and Perry laughed at me. But I nailed the third pitch and hit a picture...) Perry assembled it and Charlotte's shopping cart while I met up with my sisters for drinks that evening. We had a wonderful time talking together while enjoying our fishbowls and "wellness" drinks!

 Before I was ready for it, Christmas Eve was here and the kids and I found ourselves hanging out at Nanny's all day waiting for Perry to finish up at work. Once he arrived Hunter and JP anxiously tracked Santa's whereabouts on Papa's phone (which was a map with a non-moving pin on Missoula). Uncle Chris's phone showed Santa in Europe when he arrived at the house. 

 Casey wasn't sure what to think when Santa came strolling in.

Charlotte clung to who ever would have her!

Even Hunter and JP were a bit hesitant, despite all the Santa encounters they've had this season. 

 Since the little ones were so hesitant, Nanny helped them open their gifts from Santa. They both handled that pretty well. 

 But there was no way Casey was going to sit with him. I was surprised Charlotte sat as long as she did!

 And of course we had a family picture. I enjoy watching Chris tap Kile out of the way. Poor little Dylan was sleeping so they didn't want to get him out of the swing, but you can kind of see him!

 When Hunter was given his gift from Santa, he leaned over and whispered semi-quietly to him about how our elf, Skippy, was being naughty this year...So cute!

 They had a nice chat before Santa had to leave to deliver more presents. 

There was a lot of Papa Craig - Dylan time going on the whole evening. Both were so happy and comfortable! Especially my dad in his new chair!

 

 After Santa peaced out, we had dinner and went to mass. Before heading back up to Nanny's, we stopped back by our house to let Roxy out and words can't describe how upset the boys were. They just didn't understand why we had to go home when all of their presents were at the Missoula house. My family opens presents on Christmas eve, and Perry's family opens all the presents on Christmas day. Beings that it was already fairly late when we arrived back to the house, I made sure the kids opened their present with the jammies Perry picked out for them. They were so excited to rip it open! JP tore all the wrapping paper off and exclaimed, "YES! We got a box!" and was very disappointed when he opened it and found jammies, "Well that's not what I was expecting..." So before they opened more presents, I made them put their new jammies on.

 Usually when we have opened presents in the past, it's one person at a time opening it, but this year it seemed to be kind of a free for all. Like previous years, Hunter and JP were eager to help everyone open presents. I found out what I got before I opened it (because I'm the bookkeeper), but Perry got our moms together to help him pick out a new sewing machine for me. I would normally curse up a storm with my other, really basic, one. This one is ALL computerize. There's even a button you can push to cut your thread...

 Anyways...it was so much fun to spend time with my family and watch the excitement of all the kids. 

 Charlotte was pretty mellow the whole night. She loves the swing!

 Before bed time, the kids were treated to a story from Uncle Chris. They just love climbing on him!

 The lighting is really bad, but Perry and I made this serving tray for Kim and Julian. 

I'm so glad she likes it! Christmas stresses me out because I have such a hard time trying to decide what to give to people, so when I saw this idea, I put Perry to work!

 Even though we live just a few miles away, we opted to stay the night so my family could enjoy the excitement of the kids opening presents a bit more. 

 Charlotte wasn't too interested in opening gifts from her stocking, but she sure did look cute!

 Anything with a Ninja Turtle is the best thing in the whole world to JP. I wish I could get excited about shampoo!

 These light toys are always a hit with the kids!

 Little girls in pigtails! GAH! After all the presents were finally opened, I had to pack them up because Charlotte and Casey kept wondering around with stuff. But that was okay with me! The rest of the day was pretty laid back. We had dinner around 2 and scarfed down a delicious prime rib. I had to take a short nap afterwards though because I started feeling sick....Hooray for head colds...

 We did manage to play "that one game" (my dad never knew the name for it, but I'm pretty sure it's Five Crowns) with my dad before we went back home to see what Santa left for the kids there. 

 Santa didn't bring the green helicopters with remote controls, but instead dropped off a scooter for Hunter, a Ninja Turtle (who knew...) bike for JP, and part of a kitchen set for Charlotte. 

 Hunter is pretty convinced that our neighbor Judy is one of Santa's elves because she gave the kids each a helicopter (but not ones with remotes!) and they were thrilled with them! JP was equally thrilled when he opened up more TMNT stuff. 

 Gotta love Ninja Turtle! And let me say this, because I did that same darn thing last year and didn't learn from it. I always plan for the kids to wear the Christmas clothes, like Charlotte's pretty dress, on Christmas day. Why have I not learned to dressed them up on Christmas Eve?! We stay in our jammies what feels like all day, and just lounge around. Every stinking year! I made a point to get Charlotte dressed that afternoon...and I was so peeved about it!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas as well, and a Happy New Year!