Christmas, Christmas, Christmas!

I LOVE Christmas!! It truly is the most wonderful time of the year! Our celebrating started Saturday with my Mom and Mark and Arren and Buck! The kids played and we opened presents and had my very favorite meatloaf!! Mom and Mark had bid on rocking motorcycle at a silent auction at the prison Mark works at and they won it!!! So they gave it to Armin and he absolutely loves it!! When Jared packed it into the car Armin was very upset with his daddy!! When we got home Armin and I were sitting on the step taking off his boots and he was telling me that his "bi" was "gone", but then Jared came in the door carrying his bike and instantly he started laughing and was waving his hands because he was so excited! We had such a fun time with my mom and it was a great start to the celebrating!!

Christmas Eve my dad came early in the afternoon and the kids enlisted him to help them ice sugar cookies and they did such a good job that I am going to leave this job to them every year!! Later that afternoon my mom, Myrna, Jared and Rachel came and we had our traditional clam chowder for dinner...so yummy! After dinner we loaded up our traditional Christmas Eve presents and took them over to Myrna's where we opened our jammies, Emry put together a little Nativity game for everyone with a little poem for each piece of the Nativity!! Liam and Calum had fun with it!! Then Rachel read the kids "T'was the Night Before Christmas" and they were captivated!! Then it was bed time!!! Calum was so wound up it took him quite awhile to finally drift off!! After the kids were nestled all snug in their beds the adults brought out the treats and played pictionary!! It was a game of three teams...mother and daughter against father and daughter against "the Jared's"!!! We had lots of laughs, Myrna and Rachel did win with the Jared's coming in second and my dad and I dead last!!! After the game we loaded up our kids and took them home so Santa would find them! Jared had presents to wrap so dad and I watched a show! Just as I was about to get into bed I remembered the overnight French toast I wanted to make for breakfast! So I quickly put it together and climbed into bed trying desperately to warm my cold hands and feet on Jared!

The first out of bed this morning was Jared! And not because he was so excited to see what Santa brought, but because he was cold!! Our furnace had quit!! It was only 10 degrees in our house when he got up!!! After an hour and a half of fiddling he got it going....a Christmas miracle!!! The kids were so patient waiting for daddy so they could open their presents! It was fun to see their beaming faces opening their presents! Calum was adorable...he would hug everyone after he opened a gift and say thank you! After all the presents were opened we had our breakfast, the overnight baked French toast, which despite it being soggy, it was quite yummy! I also cooked bacon in the oven too, so much nicer than frying it and still nice and crisp!! After the kids played with their new toys and now we are watching Brave! This afternoon Lalainia and Jason and the boys will join us and we will have a super yummy Christmas turkey for dinner!

It has been a wonderful Christmas so far, our first in our new house! I have loved having my dad here with us, something I always imagined, having my parents spend Christmas with us!! And despite waking up in the frigid cold this morning and Jared having to haul water to the cows and then feed them on his only two days off, it is truly a magical Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year!!