Christmas Morning

Santa definitely found our house! Mom and Dad must have been good this year:

P1 and P2 must have bribed Santa somehow...

A closer look at P2's haul:

A closer look at P1's haul: 

 Santa brought everyone Batman Lego mini-figures. He definitely has connections, because they weren't supposed to come out until January. 

And Santa even remembered the bunnies!

I was worried the kids would wake up and see what Santa brought before Mom and Dad were awake. But turns out we had to wake them up, so that they could see what Santa brought before we had to get ready for 9 AM church.

P1 was thrilled that Santa brought him the spyglass that he wanted. He was also amazed at all the other toys Santa brought!

Well, P2 was still out cold. I guess we just had too much fun on Christmas Eve. We finally dragged her out of bed, and she loved the dollies that Santa brought her.

We got dressed and made it to church on time. We were combined with another ward, and only had Sacrament meeting. I was able to sing in the choir, and we sang my 2 favorite Christmas hymns: "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day", and "Oh Come All Ye Faithful". The arrangements were simple, but beautiful. I felt the Spirit strongly, and I am so grateful for the birth and life of my Savior, Jesus Christ. He brings the light and joy into the world. I have been grateful for the #LightTheWorld initiative the church did this month. It has really helped me and my children follow the example of Christ in simple ways. At church, we were also able to say "hi" to our old bishop from Aggie Village. His daughter is in our ward, and works with me in the Beehives.

Once we got home, we let the kids unwrap their presents. P2 got P1 a helicopter transformer, and P1 got P2 a cute Sofia Itty Bitty. P1 also got Dad a Jake Itty Bitty. Originally, we had gotten an R2D2 Itty Bitty for Dad, but then P1 saw the Jake one and we had to go exchange it.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve with my family. We tried to make gingerbread houses. The icing wasn't hardening very well, so we ended up cheating and using a hot glue gun. The kids had a blast decorating them, and they ate way too much candy! This was the first and last time we will be doing it though, because it took FOREVER to bake all the pieces.

The kids were excited to open presents! First P1 gave out his handmade presents, and most of them needed an explanation as to what they were.

 P2 got a cute jacket with Elsa on it. The first thing she said was "Where's Anna?", because Anna is her favorite in "Frozen". P1 got an awesome Captain America jacket. He put it on for a whole second and that was the best picture I could get.

 The favorite gift of the night were some lanterns from Grandpa. They also came with sleeping bags, but the kids really loved the lanterns. We spent the rest of the night with the lights off and the lanterns on. 

It is tradition for Grandpa to dress up and read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Once we got back home, we pulled out our hot-wheels and race track. We do this every Christmas Eve. The track gets put away after Christmas and doesn't come back until Christmas Eve.

The kids had a hard time going to bed, and almost got put on the naughty list. Skipping naps and eating too much sugar will do that I guess.

December Fun

One morning during the breakfast prayer, P1 said "Please bless our snowman to not melt". Turns out, the sun didn't melt him but the rain ended up washing him away.

P1 and P2 have a lot of fun playing together. Most of the time they get along well. Sometimes P2 likes to tackle her big brother. P1 still hasn't figured out that he is bigger than her. One day P1 got mad at P2 while they were playing and said "Stop mixing up my mind!"

 We made sure to watch a few Christmas specials this year. Favorites were "Frosty the Snowman", "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer", and "A Charlie Brown Christmas". However, we found out that Netflix has ruined our children. Whenever the show would go to commercial, they would demand us to turn it back to Frosty or Rudolph. And then, the next day they would ask to watch the show again and they didn't understand why they couldn't watch it again.

P1 saw a Lego General Grievous that he feel in love with. He kept talking about it and really wanted to go buy one. Well, Mom and Dad knew it was a set that was being discontinued, so Mom gave in quickly. But I told him how much it cost, and we counted the money in his piggy bank and he paid for it all my himself. He was so excited when we found it in the store and bought it.

Flying paper airplanes and making paper frogs:

 The kids love playing with their aunt. P1 kept calling her on the phone and asking her to come over and play. She is a good sport to play with them all the time!

Eating breakfast! Bagels are a treat Mom brings home when she makes it the temple in the morning. P1 likes a little pink stuff (berry cream cheese) on a cinnamon bagel, and P2 likes a lot of pink stuff on a cinnamon raisin bagel.

For Mutual, we took all the Young Women to see the lights at Temple Square. It was very crazy and chaotic, but it was still fun to get out and see the lights. And we didn't lose any of our girls!