Christmas 2014

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  Having kids makes Christmas morning so much fun!

We started our Christmas celebrations on Saturday, December 20th.  Growing up my grandparents always threw a Christmas Eve party at their house.  Because my grandparents now have around 50 great grand kids, their home is getting a little small for all of us, so we decided to have the party the Saturday before Christmas and hold it at their church building.  Casey ended up catching the flu bug the day of the party, so I just took Mason and Tanner.  We had a delicious dinner of spaghetti, garlic bread, and Olive Garden salad.  After dinner we played BINGO, white elephant games, the kids played a few other games, and then we called it a night.  We had so much fun at this party and we are already looking forward to it next year when Casey can join us.

Casey's family party was on Tuesday, December 23rd.  Casey's mom had ordered delicious ham and roll trays from Hickery Kist.  They tasted so good.  After a wonderful dinner, we played our annual BINGO game.  Casey's mom always buys the best BINGO prizes.  It's a pretty intense BINGO game because the prizes are so good, but Casey and I walked away with every prize we really wanted, including: a Sharpie marker set, gloves, socks, tools, hot coca, drawing pads, and candy.  We had such a great time.  After the BINGO game, Casey's mom started a new tradition of the Red Stocking gifts.  When Casey's mom was little her grandma would do Red Stocking gifts.  The Red Stocking gifts are $1 little gifts that her grandma would give to all the children and grandchildren.  Casey's grandma did this same tradition growing up and now Roz is doing it for us.   The girls got body soap, the boys got winter gloves, and the kids got books.  I'm very excited to start this new tradition. 

Chris and Roz gave all the grand kids matching pajamas at the grand child party. 

On Christmas Eve we spent the night with my family.  We went to Mi Ranchito for dinner then back to my parents house to write the letter to Santa and leave him some cookies and a few carrots for his reindeer.  By about 8:30 Casey and I took the kids home so we could open our Christmas pajamas.  Then we put the kids to bed.  That night Santa visited our house!!

Christmas Day was magical with Mason and Tanner.  Mason was so eager to open all the presents under the tree and Tanner was so eager to eat all the wrapping paper.  We woke up around 7 because mom and dad brought us breakfast.  They brought cereal, Cinnamon rolls, muffins, apple juice, milk, and chocolate milk. 

After eating our delicious breakfast, it was finally time to open presents, around 8:30.  Mason was so excited.  He had the look of pure joy on his face the entire time.  We started with Tanner and worked our way up to Casey.  Mason loved helping everyone open their presents.  Mason's last present was his train set.  Santa put it together the night before and hid it behind our couch so Mason wouldn't see it.  When it was time to see his train set, Casey opened the couch to reveal it.  Mason was in pure heaven with his train set.  Mason also got:  clothes, books, Planes movie, the trains to his train set, and his train set.  Tanner got:  clothes, books, Sully from Monsters Inc., a doctor kit, and a little basketball hoop. 
After opening our family gifts we opened up the presents from Chris and Roz and CJ and Bridgette.  We sure were spoiled by them.  Mason got a Lego set from grandma and grandpa Mecham and a Lego set from CJ and Bridgette.  Tanner got a stuffed elephant from grandma and grandpa Mecham and the cutest stuffed doggy from CJ and Bridgette.  Chris and Roz gave Case and I a game and some food storage and a book.  I got a Michael's gift card from CJ and Bridgette and Casey got Transformers. 

After all the presents were opened, we got ready for the day and headed over to Casey's mom and dad's house.  We spent time with family, played games, and ate a delicious lunch.  Then we brought the boys back home for naps before heading over to my parents house.

We went to my parents house around 5.  We had so much fun celebrating with them.  Mason got a remote control digger tractor from grandma and grandpa Furr and Tanner got a Little Peoples car wash set.  Casey and I got gifts card to restaurants from my parents.  Ryan and Meg had us this year for Christmas.  They gave us a few family games.  We loves sitting down as a family and playing them together. 

Amy reads the letter from Santa every year. 

We were definitely spoiled this year by everyone, but my favorite part about Christmas was being able to teach Mason and Tanner the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of our Savior.  Mason actually understood a little this year about the first Christmas.  He learned a lot about it in nursery and we taught him a lot about it during FHE in December.  We are so grateful for the opportunity we had to teach mason about giving this year.  We are also so grateful for family and all the time we got to spend with them this holiday season.  Spending time with family never gets old. 

I'm already looking forward to Christmas next year with Mason and Tanner.  Merry Christmas!!