December 25th: Christmas Morning

We are no fools. With kids that wake up in order to wake up the roosters, we knew that holding back the flood on Christmas morning would be next to impossible. So we divided and conquered. Dave slept in Clara's bedroom with Josh, and I slept in our room with Clara. We shut and locked doors and slept with one eye open. It worked. When we heard the rustling of small bodies getting up, we threw them into our room and I ran out to call everyone and say, "Get here faster." As it turned out, having a tv in our bedroom worked wonders, and the kids were engrossed in a "How It's Made" episode at 6:30am on Christmas morning.

Finally the uncles, Amas, etc. arrived and we could get the party started.

I apologize for Uncle Rob's University of Utah attire. That is all he wears. Hopefully grad school will cure him of this particular fashion statement.

The kids descended down the stairs to see what was waiting for them.

Since our plans were to go to Arizona for a week after Christmas for our family reunion, I called Santa and asked him to please bring things that would travel well. He obliged.

Opening the stockings - we had our family plus Uncle Curt, Uncle Kelly, Uncle Rob, Amabuela, Uncle Jack and Aunt Karen

Uncle Kelly reviewing the ward cookbook that Santa brought him.

Uncle Rob, Josh and a snowglobe

Aren't we awesome at 7:00am?

Dave gets his 37th electric screwdriver. But this one is HANDHELD.

Josh tearing open his presents.

Clara tearing open her presents.

There is a story that goes along with my sweet Aunt and Uncle being at my house Christmas morning. It has never happened before. In fact, the vast majority of my Christmases have been spent at their house. Because they celebrated with their kids on the 23rd, we had them come up to our house. It was very special for me to have them there, knowing that a lot of my traditions have come from their traditions. They stayed through our annual breakfast with the Sudweeks (our neighbors across the street) and then headed to their daughter's house to visit.

And finally....the cry present. In our family we have a tradition of coming up with presents that make someone (anyone) cry. My mom went through the Arizona Mesa temple 20 years ago this Fall, and even though she lives in Utah, I know it is a special temple for her. So I got this for her 20th anniversary as well as Christmas.

After all of the gifts were opened, we went upstairs to start making breakfast. Cinnamon rolls, sausage, bacon, fruit salad, juice, etc., was all on the menu. It was heaven in a meal. The Sudweeks came over and all of the kids showed off their stuff and hollered and ran around. Aunt Karen and Uncle Jack left and then Curt and Rob left to go up to Ogden. We sat around for a while digesting and getting up the energy to go sledding.....next up!