Christmas 2016

The holiday has only really just begun for us. We went to school on Friday to the last moment possible. On Christmas Eve we did our usual tradition of caroling at a nursing home with other families from our ward. Some friends of ours came over to play in the afternoon because they were going out of town Christmas morning. Their family is becoming like one of our family members, so it was like playing with cousins. We had a nice dinner, Mexican style, for Christmas Eve. All of our kids, minus Erik of course, like tacos and tamales, which Jason bought from Mexican Town.

Eating the cookies while trying to decide which to put out for Santa.

Christmas morning everyone woke up bright and early. Santa brought Victoria markers at her request, a Fur Real Friends Pony for Karissa, a mini tablet for Austin, and some Star Wars cars for Erik. Other than a remote control car for Austin, most of the other gifts were useful and or needed. I liked it this way because the kids seemed not as overwhelmed with a bigger selection of toys. They all had fun with Karissa's pony and with Austin's car. Victoria drew on everyone with her markers, which we still see the results of this morning...

Erik had candy in his mouth here. He didn't get many presents and was happy as could be with his candy and cars.

Got what he wanted!

Washable markers, of course

This pony talks and responds to you. It's cute...

Erik also wanted circle chips for Christmas.

She got Red Wings tickets at a very good price for her good GPA.

He's wanted one of these for a while.

I made the best gingerbread waffled for breakfast! The best part? All of the kids ate at least most of theirs!!

Luke liked the pony too.

And his other toys.

 I loved having Christmas on Sunday! It gave us an excuse to get out and really enjoyed Christmas day worshipping our Savior. The music and the words spoken were so beautiful. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, talking with family, and playing with the games we received. We had a simple dinner of ham, green beans, rolls, and my homemade french fries. We had planned to decorate our gingerbread houses that we started putting together on Friday, but everybody too tired so we decided to wait until Grandma Pat and Grandpa Jim arrive, which is today! I hope your day was as relaxing as ours. Merry Christmas to all!

Ready for church!

This one turned out better the girls', I should have closed the window for theirs. This was taken a few weeks ago because they were excited to take the picture. I knew I may not have the chance for Erik to get in the picture again , and I was right! He took off his sweater at church and didn't want any part in a group picture. 

So we got to take our own! 17 Christmases spent together!