Better late then never I guess. On Christmas Eve we went in to Las Vegas and went to an early dinner at Olive Garden. We also hit Target for the boys to get their gifts for each other and few misc items for the following day. We usually don't go out to dinner on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day for that matter but half of Don's siblings were gone and Darbie could not come out to Logandale so we went to her instead. It was a pretty stress-free day other than a bit of "set up" Santa did not bring any major things to be put together so that made it really nice! Nothing needed batteries either which is all the better. We held a simple FHE that night since it was Christmas Eve. We talked about all of the ways that we helped others in the month. The first week of December we started writing on slips of paper each night at scripture and prayer something that we had done for someone else that day. We saved up all the strips of paper and made a chain with of all of them . We had over 160 links on that chain which equaled 160+ acts of service we performed the month of December. Some nights we did not do the papers for various reasons but if we had the chain probably would have been doubled. I have a plethora of Christmas scrapbook paper that I just cut into strips and put them in a little basket with a pen. Then I set in on the kitchen table as a reminder. We also read the Nativity story from the Bible. Christmas Eve ended with the traditional opening of one gift. We instituted this tradition years ago to help contain the excitement for the morning. Usually the gift is the always enjoyable pajamas but this year when I did my wrap-fest I forgot to label the gifts that were the jammies so the kids opened their gifts from each other. Cody decided to wait till the morning but the other boys could not stand it and they had to open something. When we were little we always asked to open a gift on Christmas Eve but because we usually had been at Mawmaw's house and had gotten to open gifts from the cousins and gifts from Mawmaw and Pawpaw we did not get to open anything at home. The kids were in bed by 10 or so but they could not sleep. It took until after midnight for all of them to finally conk out. This is the first year that Cayden has really gotten out of control excited about Christmas morning. He used to just go right to sleep on Christmas Eve but not this year. The plan has been for the last few years that when the boys wake up they are to go to Cody's room and tell him and then he can call us on his cell phone. They are not supposed to come down the hall until we come and get them. BUT... it can't be before 6:30am. This year Connor woke up at 4:30 and he probably would have gone back to sleep but his IPOD clock said it was 5:30 and he thought that he was almost in the clear. If I remember right we did not hear them until 5:30 but I don't know if they snuck out and took a peek or not. At 5:30 Don went to see if he could get them to settle down but there was no way. I finally crawled out of my toasty warm bed at 5:45 and after all the hard work of getting Christmas together it was all over in 45 minutes. Grandma Dottie came over to see all the excitement like she has in the past. Each of the boys got a new blanket that I made them. (Grandma Dottie helped on Cayden's) Cody got tickets to see the Lion King in Las Vegas on January 9. Connor and Caleb got sparring gear and a duffle bag for their Karate class and Cayden got an IPOD. Don and I decided to have a present limit for each other this year because we bought a flat screen TV for our bedroom earlier in December. He gave me some super cute pink jammies and perfume I have been wanting. I gave him some new jammie pants, a new BYU hoody and season 4 of the Office. The boys also got a huge box of Legos and a Wii and Wii Fit. Both of those items were a big hit. Enough that Don and I went back to bed around 7 and got up at 9 to get our traditional Christmas breakfast ready. Grandpa Don, Grandma Dottie, Aunt Darbie came for breakfast. We had pancakes, sausage, bacon and grits. After breakfast was cleaned up I headed back to bed and Don dozed in the chair while the kids played the Wii out in the family room and Cody basked in the glory of the latest Harry Potter movie. Connor and Caleb also tried on their sparring gear and we had the UFC in the family room. We started getting dinner ready around 2 and then went to Don's parents house to open their gifts to us. Then we headed back to our house to finish getting dinner ready and then stuffing ourselves. Christmas night was uneventful.
Better late then never I guess. On Christmas Eve we went in to Las Vegas and went to an early dinner at Olive Garden. We also hit Target for the boys to get their gifts for each other and few misc items for the following day. We usually don't go out to dinner on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day for that matter but half of Don's siblings were gone and Darbie could not come out to Logandale so we went to her instead. It was a pretty stress-free day other than a bit of "set up" Santa did not bring any major things to be put together so that made it really nice! Nothing needed batteries either which is all the better. We held a simple FHE that night since it was Christmas Eve. We talked about all of the ways that we helped others in the month. The first week of December we started writing on slips of paper each night at scripture and prayer something that we had done for someone else that day. We saved up all the strips of paper and made a chain with of all of them . We had over 160 links on that chain which equaled 160+ acts of service we performed the month of December. Some nights we did not do the papers for various reasons but if we had the chain probably would have been doubled. I have a plethora of Christmas scrapbook paper that I just cut into strips and put them in a little basket with a pen. Then I set in on the kitchen table as a reminder. We also read the Nativity story from the Bible. Christmas Eve ended with the traditional opening of one gift. We instituted this tradition years ago to help contain the excitement for the morning. Usually the gift is the always enjoyable pajamas but this year when I did my wrap-fest I forgot to label the gifts that were the jammies so the kids opened their gifts from each other. Cody decided to wait till the morning but the other boys could not stand it and they had to open something. When we were little we always asked to open a gift on Christmas Eve but because we usually had been at Mawmaw's house and had gotten to open gifts from the cousins and gifts from Mawmaw and Pawpaw we did not get to open anything at home. The kids were in bed by 10 or so but they could not sleep. It took until after midnight for all of them to finally conk out. This is the first year that Cayden has really gotten out of control excited about Christmas morning. He used to just go right to sleep on Christmas Eve but not this year. The plan has been for the last few years that when the boys wake up they are to go to Cody's room and tell him and then he can call us on his cell phone. They are not supposed to come down the hall until we come and get them. BUT... it can't be before 6:30am. This year Connor woke up at 4:30 and he probably would have gone back to sleep but his IPOD clock said it was 5:30 and he thought that he was almost in the clear. If I remember right we did not hear them until 5:30 but I don't know if they snuck out and took a peek or not. At 5:30 Don went to see if he could get them to settle down but there was no way. I finally crawled out of my toasty warm bed at 5:45 and after all the hard work of getting Christmas together it was all over in 45 minutes. Grandma Dottie came over to see all the excitement like she has in the past. Each of the boys got a new blanket that I made them. (Grandma Dottie helped on Cayden's) Cody got tickets to see the Lion King in Las Vegas on January 9. Connor and Caleb got sparring gear and a duffle bag for their Karate class and Cayden got an IPOD. Don and I decided to have a present limit for each other this year because we bought a flat screen TV for our bedroom earlier in December. He gave me some super cute pink jammies and perfume I have been wanting. I gave him some new jammie pants, a new BYU hoody and season 4 of the Office. The boys also got a huge box of Legos and a Wii and Wii Fit. Both of those items were a big hit. Enough that Don and I went back to bed around 7 and got up at 9 to get our traditional Christmas breakfast ready. Grandpa Don, Grandma Dottie, Aunt Darbie came for breakfast. We had pancakes, sausage, bacon and grits. After breakfast was cleaned up I headed back to bed and Don dozed in the chair while the kids played the Wii out in the family room and Cody basked in the glory of the latest Harry Potter movie. Connor and Caleb also tried on their sparring gear and we had the UFC in the family room. We started getting dinner ready around 2 and then went to Don's parents house to open their gifts to us. Then we headed back to our house to finish getting dinner ready and then stuffing ourselves. Christmas night was uneventful. 
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