Merry Christmas

This morning the kids woke us up earlier than we have ever been woken up before. Rachel and Jacob slept in Rachel's bed so I don't think that helped them sleep in. They were waking us up at 7 AM. I made them go back to their rooms till a little before 8. I was so tired and did not want to get up. We finally got up and just as we were getting up Kaelen got up as well. I had figured we would all get up and Kaelen would get up later. The kids were so excited. It was fun too to have them go down the stairs this year. So much easier to make them not to peek. We have always done Christmas upstairs in the living room but because we have our piano now and the tree won't fit upstairs we for the first year did it downstairs.

The kids were so excited to see everything. I love the magic of Christmas. Santa after he eats his goodies always leaves a note to the kids and a small gift to the family. He left an electric sharpener. It is so funny as to how excited our kids get with stuff like that. We then always open our presents from Santa that he places in our Santa bags and wraps as well. Everything from Santa is wrapped in special Santa paper. including the things in our Stockings. It is so fun to open all kinds of little things. This year I think the kids were excited to get their presents from Santa. Kaelen got a little broom and dust pan. After he opened it he right away started walking around the room trying to sweep everything. Jacob got an electric car and Rachel got "the biggest littlest pet shop kit." That is exactly what it is called. The funny thing though is that I think Rachel was most excited about the books she got from Santa. She got the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series. She had already read book 1 and 2 and was so excited to read the rest of the series. She is our bookworm. She reads till almost midnight most nights.



After opening all of our Santa presents and stockings we went upstairs for breakfast. I made a ham, cheese and french bread casserole. I make something like this every year because I can always make on gluten free for Enoch and I can make it the night before, have it in the fridge all night and then pop it in the oven in the morning before we start on presents. We once again opened some poppers. The kids liked them more this time because they knew what was going to happen.


Once we were done breakfast we went to open presents from each other and family. This year we really downsized with the gifts. The kids got one present from Mom and Dad, present from their cousin they exchanged with, a present from each other and presents from Grandpa and Grandma. This year when the kids exchanged presents they did it in pairs. Rachel and Jacob got a present for Kaelen, Jacob and Kaelen got a present for Rachel and Rachel and Kaelen got a present for Jacob. This year we really didn't have the overwhelming amount of presents like we usually do. I did though have way more presents than everybody else. Enoch gave more more than my one present. He always goes above and beyond for me. Also Enoch and I decided that since we were going to San Diego and bought a brand new bed that we were not going to spend a lot on each other. Really we shouldn't have gotten each other anything but I am not going to complain about opening some presents. Oh wait I did. Enoch bought me a $100 gravy boat. I wanted to kill him when I heard that. He actually only paid $50 for it but I was so shocked. It was beautiful though. I decided though to return it because after 2 glasses being broken eating dinner and 3 of my really nice home decorations broke recently as well I figured this would break the first time we used it. I love having kids but things break with them it seems. I don't have a place to store really nice stuff. I want to have stuff right now that I can use all the time.

Here is a list of the presents that the kids got and pictures of them opening their presents. I took over 300 pictures and so I have seperated them into pictures of just them.

Kaelen didn't get as much as everybody because he is little and really didn't need much. He loved opening his presents though. He opened them all by himself as well. It was so cute.

• His broom from Santa
• A bowling set from Rachel and Jacob
• A real vacuum that works from Mom and Dad (Kaelen loves to clean and help around the house. We figured if we gave him the real stuff then he could actually clean as well)
• Some really fun books from his cousins
• Books from Grandpa and Grandma Fisher

Jacob would kiss his presents or lay on them when opened them. I guess that he was excited.

• From Santa an electric race car that was broken before he even played with it. We returned it and got an even better one. The new one drives on the walls and floor. It is amazing.
• A disc jammer Frisbee from Kaelen and Rachel
• A bunch of wii games from Mom and Dad. Yes for Christmas we bought the kids a wii. They were so shocked. They had no idea that they were getting one. They screamed so loud when they opened the gift. It was so fun. They both asked for Nintendo DSI's from Santa but we had bought them the wii months ago and so Santa didn't bring the DSI's. They were not sad.
• A cool book that plays music from Grandpa and Grandma Fisher.
• From his cousin, Morgan he got an electric car.

Rachel screamed so many times opening presents. She didn't scream as much as I would have thought when she opened the wii though. She screamed the most when she got her books in her stockings.

• From Santa she got her littlest pet shop set
• From Jacob and Kaelen she got 2 Camp rock barbies that sing
• From Grandpa and Grandma Fisher she got a Webkinz and earrings. Oh yah I need to mention this. We made her close up her ears where they were pierced years ago because she kept tearing them. Well for months she has asked to get her ears pierced. Santa left in her stocking a gift certificate to get them done as well as professional earings for piercing. She was so excited.
• From her cousin she got this awesome rock band bracelet making kit. She was so excited to get started on that and make some large bands to wear.

Enoch didn't get much because I was spending a lot on his gift from me. I didn't even have the kids get him something. They didn't like that but I was trying to not spend too much. Also Enoch is not the easiest person to shop for because he really doesn't want much.

• He got from Santa much needed new garments.
• a pancake grill (well we both did) from Heather and Mike
• From me he got a gym membership. He had no idea about it and was so excited. He is running the Ragnar relay with me in June and so he really needs to get his muscle strength up so he doesn't injure himself like he did before. I am excited for him to go and exercise 3-4 times a week now.

I got more than I needed. Like I said before Enoch always spends too much and does too much on me.

• I got a GPS for the car. So excited to take it to San Diego with us.
• I got much needed garments as well.
• Some porcelain cooking dishes from my Mom as well as a poppy picture that matches my other ones downstairs. Thanks
• Some really awesome cooling racks that I really needed.
• Really fuzzy socks. My feet are always cold and so Enoch was so nice to think about that for me. I love them.
• I also got a bag for church. I am now teaching in primary and needed something for my stuff.

We had such a nice relaxing Christmas. It was so nice to have such few presents and to really take our time to enjoy hanging out together.

Around 5 we then left to go to the Heileson's. We always spend Christmas evening with them. We went up for dinner, open the rest of our presents and play games. We always have so much fun. For Christmas we got my favorite item. We got food storage. I ask for it every year. To me there is nothing nicer than opening food storage. Even if I know ahead of time what it is. It is so nice to have one less thing that I have to buy. We got powdered milk and rice. So awesome. Our kids got awesome presents but I think that Kaelen got the best. Rachel got a beautiful cardigan/shrug that she can wear to church, Jacob got a game for his leapster that he plays non stop now and Kaelen got a shopping cart. He has loved it. If anybody touches it he freaks out. That is his toy and he knows it. He loves putting his footballs and basketballs in it and pushes them around in it. Very cute.


Madeline and Brytton brought their wii and their wii fit plus so we played that. It was so funny to watch Gloria try to play some of the balance games. We were laughing so hard. We also played a bunch of card games together. It was so fun. I love hanging out with the Heileson's because of how much fun we all have playing games.

I really loved Christmas this year. I think that we all did. We all loved how simple it was but fun. We all enjoyed hanging out together as a family. We wish that we could have spent Christmas with everybody though too. We love you all.