Christmas 2011

We had a great Christmas!

Megan and Erin and her family came over for our traditional "Breakfast for Dinner" on Christmas Eve. My mom likes to host a brunch on Christmas day, so a few years ago we started making breakfast for dinner on Christmas Eve. This year we had french toast, bacon, sausage, hash browns, and orange julius.  We make cookies together (for Santa, of course!) before we wrap up.

The kids were excited to open their gifts from Grandpa Cole. The boys got cash which made them so excited and all of the girls got some cute jewelry boxes with lip gloss inside.

Sophia was thrilled with her box.... she has carried it around for days, saying, "bah!"

Liv's was purple!

Did I mention that the boys were excited about their money?

We loved having Erin's family and Megan come over!

After the party wrapped up we moved on to our tradition of new PJs. The kids were excited about their new duds.

Sophia wasn't too interested in opening gifts, but Ryan was good to help her with hers.

We still have believers (three!) at our house, so we hurried off to bed after we left cookies and milk and carrots for our nighttime visitors.

On Christmas day we got to go to church at 9 am. My master plan was to wake up and let the kids look through their stockings and open a few gifts (new church clothes) and do the rest after we got home. Ryan and the kids had another plan... so, majority ruled and we woke up at 6 am to enjoy all the goodness of Christmas morning with plenty of time to get ready for church.

I loved this look on Olivia's face. The funniest part is that she got THAT excited about a box of gobstoppers.  Classic.

That Santa is a clever one. He brought the book Goodnight Moon to Sophia, and Ryan got Goodnight iPad. It is pretty funny.  (And is written by Ann Droyd... get it? It took me a minute.)

Soph loved her new baby.

Coleman was excited with everything he opened. He's such a happy kid.

Church was lovely. Olivia and Coleman played their Christmas hymns for the prelude music. Ryan and Olivia sang in the ward choir, Ry sang with the men of the ward too. I even sang with Ryan and several other couples. I thought it was wonderful to be at church and feel the spirit and worship the Savior on the very day that we were celebrating his birth.

Aren't they handsome boys?

Sophia's favorite gift (for the moment) was her new baby doll.

Olivia was thrilled to have a new camera... and she has been taking at least 100 pictures every day since then. She confessed that every morning she takes a few self-portraits right when she gets up because she thinks it's fun to capture her sleepy face.

Coleman was so excited for a new Wii game... Harry Potter Years 5-7. He also loved his Ninjago alarm clock.

Ryan loves his new gadget that plays music from our phones without even being plugged in. While it was his gift and a surprise for him, I have to admit that I have gotten the most use out of it thus far. Lucky me!

My favorite gift is this beautiful canvas that Ryan made. He did a collage of our family photo shoot and the Proclamation to the World on the family. Love it!

My mom knits sweaters for each of her grandchildren. Amazing, no? Sophia's sweater is darling, and Soph is pretty darling too. I loved this picture!

I love Christmas... it's busy and can be stressful, but I love giving gifts and seeing the joy on these beautiful kids' faces when they open the thing that is just perfect for them.

**What was the best gift you gave this year?