Christmas Fun

We had such an awesome Christmas!!! Even though we don't have a chimney, we had a key to let Santa in. It's a good thing we left that key, because Santa sure did have a lot of presents for us. This year was so much fun, because Ella kind of understood Santa and presents. When she would see Santa there were mixed emotions. In person she was really hesitant, and if I was around, she was scared of Santa. We kept reassuring her that Santa was NICE. So then when she would see pictures of Santa she would get excited and say "Santa, nice".

Here are some pictures from the night before Christmas. When we read the Christmas story from the Bible, Ella got to be Mary (she loved it) and the twins were animals in the stable (reindeer to be exact). They received cute matching monkey Jammie's also.

This is what the kids gifts looked like right after Santa came.

Christmas was so special. Ella was so excited. She opened up all of her presents by herself. It took 2 whole hours. By the end of it, Ella was starting to get tired and grumpy. Dean and Elysee just wanted to sit in their seats and watch. Although they did try to open their own gifts.

Christmas started out with the kids joining us in our bed. Although they didn't really know what was going on, Ella knew it was something to be excited about.

Ella received 3 Barbies, Barbie horse, puzzle, princess; towel, bowl, plate, pillow (that plays music when you plug in your ipod), Elmo live, bike, clothes, PJ's, fairy dress ups, baby legs, shoes/socks, movies, coloring books, crayons, learning cards, toothbrushes, Anne Geddes doll, v-tech digital camera, hat, gloves and some other little toys.

Elysee received some books, clothes, tickle me cookie monster, v-tech alphabet train, baby legs, and LOTS of little toys.

Dean received a tickle me Ernie, books, baby legs, v-tech alphabet train, baseball hat, clothes, a truck, and a few other little toys.

John received some clothes, movies, jacket, hat, book and a garmin 780 navigation system.

I was SO spoiled this year. John always surprises me and this year I was in SHOCK!!! I received some really nice, high end, clothes, toaster, and a nice knife set to add to our others. Just when I thought we were done, John asked Ella if she had gotten her ornament off of the tree. I looked over at the tree and there were gift cards all over the tree. I picked one up and it was to one of my FAVORITE places Gygi Culinary Solutions. I opened it up and it was for $100! Then I opened up the next one $100, and the next one $100. There was a total of $1,000 to Gygi's!!!! I was so excited I didn't even know what to say. Thanks you John for making this Christmas so awesome!

We wanted a cute Christmas picture of just the kids and Ella was doing so good until all of a sudden the train behind her, the one going around the tree, derailed. Ella though that she had done it and it scared her to death. She "threw" the babies off of her and took off. It scared me to death, because Ely and Dean flew to the ground. After we made sure they were ok, we just laughed and laughed and wished we had gotten it on video. It literally happened just seconds after this picture was taken. I had to share that with everyone, because you can just picture it in your head.

Christmas night we went to my parents home in Heber and had so much fun. Ella got a baby doll from Grandma and Grandpa and the babies received a ton of little baby toys. Ella also got to play with her cousins (which is something she loves to do). My parents always have a fun game that we play to receive extra gifts. John had a great strategy and we ended up with the most gifts! Go John! We also received a card saying that my parents are going to pay for us to go to a luau while we are in Hawaii (in January).

My sister Erika also made the most adorable skirts for all of the girls (nieces). Erika is amazing! These skirts are just so cute, here they are!