It's Christmas!.....

Christmas Eve at our house always consists of opening up new jammies - I believe it is what almost every family does. This year was a little different for us because J.D. and I finally got smart and gave our kids money to go and 'fill' our stockings....it was good for 2 reasons. It was especially fun to see what they would pick out for their mom and dad and it was great because while they were gone shopping J.D. and I were able to get nearly all our wrapping done with an empty house. Not worrying about who might try to bust down the door at any given moment.

We always spend Christmas Eve with J.D.'s mom. This year it was our turn to host and we invited his grandma and his aunt and uncle. Our kids are always a little bored because there are no other kids to be with, so this year we tried to add a few extra people. It was fun to spend time with them and J.D. wanted to make them a nice dinner. We went around the table trying to think of our 3 favorite things....they couldn't be the obvious, house, family, etc. We wanted some thinking to go into it. Drew mentioned a fresh haircut and contacts....also football. Jensen loves his dads cooking and learning to wrestle this year. Ella hid under the table and didn't want to talk about things she enjoyed, oh well. Morgan said that Brenna was one of her favorites, spending time with her watching movies and staying up late, gum, and her love for reading good books. She also loves freshly shaved legs and rubbing them on clean sheets. Brenna loves chapstick, Dr. Pepper and of all things sleep (on the cold side of the pillow). What funny kids I have. J.D. loves the fireplace in our bedroom and I love tevo....hmmmm. We both love spending time with each other after the kids have gone to bed watching all the shows we have recorded (I love reality television, sad but true.) and staying warm in our bedroom.

All of us in our new P.J.'s on Christmas morning before the big reveal of what Santa had brought.

Ella has been wanting the "Touch and Brush" for months now. She would see the infomercial on T.V. and would say every time - "I want that...."
I wasn't able to find it for her birthday and boy did she notice. "What about the toothbrush thing??" So luckily, on one of my Walmart runs look what I found at the checkout. I am so glad I found it, because on Christmas night as I was putting the kids in bed I asked Ella what her favorite gift was, expecting to hear that it was the new build-a-bear, or her DS, but if fact it was her new toothbrush thing. Isn't it funny how sometimes the simplest things bring you the most pleasure. Like the shaved legs, the contacts, the fireplace, daddy's cooking, and Dr. Pepper.

Ji's first Christmas. Having a baby in the house is one of the things that brings me great happiness. It was fun to watch him try to open the gifts, he was more interested in eating each piece of paper that he ripped off - typical baby. Santa brought him some toys, all of which make noise and some new clothes because he is growing so so fast.

Christmas day at Grandma and Grandpa Hackwells consists of 13 adults (not including mom and dad) and 18 grand kids. So once we all get in one room to open gifts it is chaos. 33 people all trying to sit in a circle to see what we all get and give. It is loud and crazy, but we love it. The benefits of large families are all the great times that we have together.

Merry Christmas to all of you. I love you and am so glad that we are all apart of each others life.