A Very Merry Early Christmas

Santa comes early to firefighter's houses, but only when they have to work on Christmas day. Our family woke up to Christmas morning today, and I have to say that it is a lot fun to celebrate a day early. I'm still not exactly sure why.

We started a cute new tradition that Lincoln heard about and begged to do. The kids followed a piece of yarn all over the house until they found their Christmas pajamas. After a surprise email video from Santa last night (so cute), my kids were intent on living up to Santa's expectations of them. That quickly flew out the window as excitement and tiredness creeped upon them. This resulted in a now regrettable choice to make a phone call to Santa. Lincoln was pretty convinced that Santa was just finishing loading up his sleigh and jumping in to head over to our house. Even then, it was still a half an hour before those eyes of his finally shut for the night!

Christmas morning started when Summit scratched on the door to be let out at 7:00am! My kids were gratefully still asleep, but not after they heard him. Let the games begin! We went down to see what Santa had left in our stockings. Scout's favorite stuffer was the new lip gloss(which since then has been put on every person we know). Linc's favorite stuffer was the DS that was in Daddy's stocking. Note: Daddy's stocking. This was a family gift, but judging from the 4 hours he spent on it today, he thinks it's his.

The opening of presents was the usual fun and craziness. Oddly enough, Scout who usually takes her time and enjoys each thing, was tearing open paper and wildly moving on to the next one. Only halfway through did we notice the Christmas potty dance going on. After that was taken care of, things were a lot more relaxed. Her favorite gift was a plush toy dalmation dog from 101 Dalmations named "Penny". It doesn't matter how I try, that girl LOVES stuffed animal puppy dogs.

Lincoln was very excited, but surprisingly relaxed about opening his presents. He was polite and grateful. All this was unexpected and much appreciated. His favorite gifts were the Bakugan and Transformers.

They adore their gifts from our family members. The gigantic horse is daunting, but Scout loves it and from the kitchen I constantly hear the neighing sound. One of my favorites to watch is the Optimus Prime Voice Changing Mask. Summit had to learn quickly to get used to it, since it is a favorite of everyone. I loved hearing Eliah sing "Jingle Bells" while wearing it and riding the huge horse. See below for the blackmail picture. The Playmobile airplane is currently boarding all transformers and police officers and is a definite hit. The sweatshirts pretty much sum up the current interest of our children right now. I'm sure I will have to pry them off of them when they go to sleep. Thanks G&G Chase and Cami and Lando and Melissa and Steve! And look for future posts of pics and vids taken by the kids on their new cameras. Those things are amazing and super cool! The kids love them. Thanks Grandpa Walter and Bonnie!

We had, as Dave put it, "One of the best Christmases in my memory". It was relaxing and we ate really good food. Loved breakfast, loved dinner. Mmmm...yummy new recipe. And best of all, I'm not stressing over anything tonight.

We are so grateful that we could celebrate together. We cherish the reason that we celebrate. As we try and teach our kids the reason for the season, we obviously focus on the Savior. We are grateful that we know that we are celebrating Christ's birth and the joyous beginning of his life. We hope that each of you have a wonderful Christmas!