Christmas Eve Spectacular

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve is always a huge event in my family. Every year my mom puts together this HUGE spread of food. It is a buffet of the yummiest food ever. The first time Doug came to a Christmas Eve at my families, he ate so much shrimp cocktail he was literally sick for a couple of days. He couldn't look at shrimp cocktail for a while after that too! We all laughed and called him a rookie. There's a science to eating the buffet he hadn't learned yet. This was was especially fun because we had all of our family together and some friends too. My parents, brother and sister, grandma and grandpa, and Justin and Sarah were all there. We had just enough kids for the making of our own little Nativity play, so that's exactly what we did! It was by far the most adorable thing I have ever seen! Here is the run down of how it all went down...

Papa- Narrator

Karlee- Angel (of course!)

Monterey- Mary

Brody- Joseph

Alexandra- Wiseman

Jadyn- Wiseman

Linkin-Shepherd

Codan- Shepherd

Caviston- Shepherd

Ry Ry- Wiseman

Oh by the way, Doug and I got suckered into doing it too!!! They needed an Inn Keeper and his Wife, so Doug and I ended up with the roles. (Those pictures wont be posted) :)

My dad read the story and would pause for the characters to act out what had just happened. Than we would sing a Christmas song that went along with the story. It was the most precious thing ever to see those kids dressed up acting out the Christmas Story. It is definitely a tradition we must keep doing for years to come. I know they enjoyed it, and so did we. There isn't anything like the spirits of those little kids that make you feel the real meaning of Christmas.

My adorable little Shepherd boy! (Doug is still dressed up like the Inn Keeper in the back)

Good thing Caviston was there to "harken" unto the angel. The other two Shepherd just kept eating the manger. Good work boys.

Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus lying in his manger. I think this picture is precious!

Most of the cast... Karlee, Montorey, Brody, Jadyn, and Caviston

Family Christmas Picture

We love you grandma and grandpa!!!!!!

Christmas Day

(I got my two front teeth just in time for Christmas!)

I know I am getting a little carried away with posting all these pictures of Linkin, but it is my first child's first Christmas. That's a holiday in itself, right?! So I had this genius plan that I would put the toys together and than wrap them and that would all of a sudden make him be sixteen years old on Christmas. My plan was a semi success I would say. I think if the toys weren't put together he wouldn't have cared less, but since he had something to play with immediately, he thought it was way more fun. With that said, his favorite toys he got were a couple of balls that came with one of his toys. Could have saved myself a lot of trouble if that's all he got! :) Anyway, we woke up (correction he woke us up) and started Christmas right away. One of the toys he got was a toy house, and it was to big to wrap, so I just threw a blanket over it. I took the blanket off, and Link crawled over to it and grabbed the balls out of it and crawled away. I don't think he knows for sure yet how to play with the house, because he just steels the balls from it still. We started opening gifts and he thought it was pretty fun, but I think he was a little bit overwhelmed. He kept crawling into the other room and playing with his favorite toy he has had for months! He would leave us and go have a little bit of "me" time by himself in the hallway. I would go get him and bring him back and open up more presents. It was hilarious! We took way to many pictures and had way to much fun with our little man. Doug and I got our Christmas presents early. We did the whole Black Friday thing with all the crazies. I got some golf clubs and he got speakers for his TV he won at work. He actually won another TV from work and he gave that to me on Christmas morning. The most surprising thing to me was it was a surprise! Doug always gets to excited and tells me my gifts early. This year he did an AMAZING job at keeping it all secret. I'm very proud of my man. After presents were over, I made a yummy breakfast and we got ready to go over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for more Christmas. We had a busy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It was a blast!

This is Linkin's favorite new toy. I like it because it's educational of course, not because he'll play with it forever so I can actually get laundry done. :)

This is the toy Link kept crawling over to and playing with while we were trying to open up his presents. It was too cute and funny!

Oops!

Christmas Eve!

It's Christmas Eve!!!! This morning my dad asked my two nieces Monterey and Alexandra who was coming to their house tonight (meaning Santa). They looked at him and said, "Hillary!" I thought that was the funniest thing I'd ever heard. I don't know how it happened, but somehow I out ranked Santa! (I actually think they didn't realize it was Christmas Eve.) Still, I out ranked Santa! :) Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!!! Enjoy your Holiday with your family and friends!

When Is Christmas?!?

Doug and I have been total procrastinators this year. We totally saved all of our Christmas shopping until today. We were out there with all of the crazies doing the last minute dash today. We almost got done too! I know what I'll be doing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. :) (If my family is reading this I totally bought yours like three months ago.) lol. The reason that we waited for so long is because we both wanted to do it together. It was so funny to be able to buy Linkin's Christmas presents right in front of him. We would show him the gifts and say, "Hey, this is what you're getting for Christmas." We would both laugh because he had no clue what was going on. It was awesome. What will I do when he gets old enough to understand? I even let him play with one of the toys before I wrapped it. He wont remember he played with that in a week, right?
Everyone has told me that he is too young to really grasp the whole open presents thing on Christmas morning. They tell me not to get my hopes up. Well... I have a theory about that! I have decided that if I have all of the toys out of their boxes and already put together and ready to go he will get it. I know this is probably me just being ridiculous, but I think it will work. I put all of the toys together and have all of the batteries in them. As soon as that paper gets ripped off, he's ready to go. There is no way he'll just want to play with the wrapping paper, right? The only part about my genius plan is that I hate to have presents wrapped that don't look pretty. I like presents to be wrapped all perfect like they were just brought home from a gift wrapping store. My presents this year look like Linkin wrapped them himself. The toys are all crazy shapes and it was a total sloppy job. I'll suck it up though as long as Christmas morning goes well! Do you think my plan will work?

IT'S A BOY!!!!!!!

Okay, so I'm not pregnant, but I totally thought I was for a like a week and a half. This story was too funny I had to share. I went to the store to buy a test because I was convinced we were having a baby. I bought a bunch of other stuff too. I was all finished and checking out and the clerk cracked me up! She was scanning all of my items and she paused when she came to my test. She looked at it and said, "Oh, one of those". In like the most monotone yet freaked out voice ever. I responded by saying, "yep." She looked at my basked and saw Linkin and said, "Oh, and one of those too!" I smiled and said, "yep." She looked at me with the most terrifying expression and said, "uh oh, it's to soon." I looked at her and said, "yep." She finished checking me out and I laughed all the way home. As if I wasn't already thinking those thoughts, the random lady at Albertson's had to reinforce them. It was hilarious! Had to pass it on!

O' Christmas Tree O' Christmas Tree

Last week I put up my Christmas tree. I was a little bit worried about having it up because I was convinced Linkin was going to pull it over on himself. The boy could care less about my tree! I put it up while he was taking a nap, and when he woke up he totally didn't even realize it was there. I showed it to him because I wanted to see what he was going to do and if I should put a gate up. He sat on the floor next to the tree and started pulling on the ornaments until they fell off. He thought they were pretty fun to suck on and throw. It was so adorable because he tried to put them back on the tree. He would pick them up and try to get them to magically stick onto the branch. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen! He would get so mad because obviously they didn't stick. He would let out a little frustrated moan and try it again. Occasionally he would get lucky and one of the hooks would catch on something and he would scrunch up his face into his cute little smile and do his happy breathing. (This is were he breaths out his nose and sounds like a pug dog! :) It was seriously the most adorable thing I've ever seen! I wish I could have gotten video of it but as soon as he sees my camera he drops whatever he's doing and wants to come eat the camera! He's my silly boy!!! :)

This is my Christmas tree. I took pics with the lights on but they made it look weird. It looks better in person! :)

I got a little crazy with my tree topper this year. It looks way cool though!