Merry Christmas Traditions

Merry Christmas. It's been a Christmas of all the usual Christmas traditions: Tradition 1 - Last night the kids all slept slept under the tree -

Joseph got a blow up mattress (that had folded in on him like a burrito by morning) - Owen next him, then Natalie and Sophi -

and on the right side of the tree, we've got Wes up top, D below with his face in his pillow, Lily with her pink blanket over her head, and Abi on the loveseat.

I woke up at 4:20 to set out presents. Tradition 2 - The kids had set out a treat for Santa: cookies, an orange, and water. 

I was grateful for the p.s. reminder to be careful with the tree (it needs a new base). Corey was feeling sick so I did it by myself, which is also becoming a tradition! It was fine though - took me an hour, which was also when Peter woke up, so good timing there. Tradition 3 - Corey did most of the wrapping and did a beautiful job.

Just past 5 am and we're ready to go. I woke up later that I do most years, but the kids were up really late playing the Wii and I begged them to go to sleep but they wanted to play and then clean up. I said fine, but absolutely NO setting alarms for 3 am! Cause I won't be done by then, they agreed.

Corey had bought eggo waffles and nutella for breakfast. I didn't have any, and I don't think the kids did either since they were already full from Tradition 4 - going to town on the chocolate goodies that were in their stockings. Tradition 5 - talking to our missionaries! We've got three this year! We were on the phone for a bit and then hooked them up to the side room big screen. They said it doesn't really feel like Christmas where they are, and that they had a semi normal missionary day of street contacting and proselytizing. 

Joseph laughed as he remembered in 2019 when they wanted to be done talking to him so they could get back to playing Smash Brothers. Some of the little kids were like that today, but the big kids are learning and we barely outnumber the little ones, so it was good and they sat patiently while we visited. Mel only had 30 minutes, so we were glad they could all call at the same time. After Mel had to go, we said goodbye for a bit (we talked to E and H again later) and we went to open family gifts. This was funny, as usual. Owen had taken any random thing and wrapped it for people. With his limited resources, he really has the spirit of Christmas. He gave Joseph a Book of Mormon, which is one of the greatest gifts anyone can receive! He gave Sophi a small turtle that he took off of Abi's desk. He took a black cat of Lily's, that was in her room, and wrapped it and gave that to her. It was pretty funny. Owen used up a lot of wrapping paper this past month. He'd wrap things, then unwrap them cause he couldn't contain his excitement at seeing all those gifts under the tree, and then go get something else to wrap. We had to lock up the wrapping paper and tape to try to conserve resources before they used it all! Wes bought Peter some little dinosaur cars that he looked up on the computer just for fun, and once Peter saw them he couldn't stop talking about them, and when Wes was at this computer, Peter would come up and ask to see the Dinosaur Cars. Peter was very happy. 

He got a lot of dinosaurs and a lot of cars today, but Wes came through with the hybrid of both! 

After the family gifts, we went over to the white tree for gifts from "Santa". Owen was the only one that got legos, so that was new. Lily was kinda in a transition year, against her will, and Corey got her mostly clothes and jewelry. Plus he gave her a early gift of a new saxophone clarinet case a few months ago that was expensive and he told her it was part of her Christmas, so it was ok, but she was a little disappointed.

Daniel opening a remote control car.

Peter was very content with his Dinosaur cars.

Abi was very happy with the Chacos that Corey found her. 

Wes was easy to shop for since he has discovered hockey. He probably go the biggest haul this year. 

We felt justified with him though, since we kinda needed to make up for 2019 when he got a block of wood. Abi was happy, Sophi and Natalie too.  After gifts, they played a little bit of the Wii, and then around 1:30 we headed out to go to Wrides. Hyrum called again while we were on our way there. We had lunch over there and opened presents.

Ethan called tonight after we got home. I called my mom after we got home around 6 for a visit. I was feeling a bit tired and so I went to lay down for a bit, now I'm on duty and it's Corey's turn to take a break, and we'll see if I have any luck trying to get them to go to bed tonight! We have church early tomorrow, so hopefully they'll cooperate.