Christmas 2012

(Pictures coming soon, Sean is too organized sometimes and put the pictures on his laptop, which is at his office)

Our Christmas this year, as with past years, was wonderful. We have many traditions that we incorporate. I like to buy the kids a new ornament each year. This year we went with a beach/ocean theme. Josh and Zach both got surfboard ornaments, Ben got a dolphin, and Faith got a mermaid. Our family ornament was a turquoise glass ball with Santa flying over the beach and 2012 marked on it. We also had several ornaments from our travels across the country. One from each Yellowstone, Disney World, and New York.

Every Christmas Eve, we all open presents from other family members not at our house for Christmas. My children all receive new pajamas (that way they look nice on Christmas day for pictures!!).

I always seem to wait until the last minute to wrap presents, luckily this year my mother in law helped during the day on Christmas Eve, so that was all done for me. She also helped bring them down after the kids went to bed. My husband wants our children to be surprised when they see all the presents, so no presents are allowed under the tree until we bring everything down.

Another tradition he has, which I love, is putting the kids stockings at the foot of their bed. That way on Christmas morning they spend a little time opening their stocking so we can get a few extra minutes of sleep. But my children are still a little too small to do this and they brought their stockings into our bed as soon as they woke up (for the 2nd time) at 6am!

Christmas morning was fun, but it seems to only take about 10 minutes for my children to tear open all of their gifts. It makes me happy that I went with my husband's idea of wrapping everything, which probably added a little time to their unwrapping presents, although I always thought that Santa toys shouldn't be wrapped and should be set up ready to play with (to avoid that awkward moment when the kids see that we have the same wrapping paper as Santa)! This was they year that my children got skateboards and pads. Josh and Zach also got Heelies (shoes with a wheel in the heel). Faith got a brand new 5th generation iTouch, she was thrilled! Our whole family got season passes to LegoLand from my in laws and Sea World passes from my husband's business partner. So much to look forward to in the coming year!

After unwrapping, we had our big Christmas breakfast of bacon and eggs. With this being the first Christmas that we are vegetarian, we opted for veggie sausage and fake bacon. Not as good as the real thing, but I was happy to stick with my healthy lifestyle.

In the afternoon we headed to my mom's house in Moreno Valley, where almost all of my family meets. It was a great afternoon of family, cousins, reading the Christmas story, eating, and hanging out. And of course more presents!

We really had a great day and I'm so happy that we were given a Savior on this day so many years ago.