Merry Christmas!

It was such a merry Christmas!

Everyone was so excited to wake up and find a little Lego set under the tree in their room as well as a candy cane tucked into the stockings they had hung on their door handles. 

The whole point of the Lego tradition in Kent's family growing up was to keep the boys out of the parents' room too early but as you can see in our family, the parent is as excited as the kids to build the Legos! 

Kent got a little Cosmo! 

Seth got a little train! He also got his blue candy cane open after this picture and so this is the only one for the morning where he doesn't have blue lips!

Everyone else's was too complicated to finish quickly so we opted to do them later. 

We watched the Nativity film with Breath of Heaven playing over the footage as is tradition. I love that little video!

I tried to have the kids line up but Seth didn't get it. He was also on a sugar-grump because I had taken away is candy cane as soon as the film was over since I didn't care if he was quiet or not anymore. 

The next few pictures are so sadly blurry. We still have yet to remember to get our camera back from Melissa and Karl! AAAHHH! So my phone with a flash just did not cut it! You can at least get the gist of the excitement though, right?!? 

All those pictures were just from the stockings people. And thankfully it eventually got light enough that my phone camera stopped trying to use the flash! We were so enjoying watching the kids open their stockings and gift that we didn't open ours until after they were done. I went first but of course there are never pictures of me doing anything because I am always behind the camera! I got the promise of a bike in my stocking so I can compete in a triathlon this summer! Woohoo! Kent had a BYU themed stocking this year. =o]

Then we took a timeout for breakfast. As we were getting everything ready I noticed I hadn't seen Jenna or Caleb in a while. I came upstairs to find her in her room listening to her new Frozen CD on her new Frozen CD player and singing away like there was no tomorrow!

I found Caleb in our room hard at work on the set he got under his little tree that morning! He said he just kept thinking about it and couldn't stop until it was finished! 

Natalie meanwhile opened all the blinds all the way so we could better enjoy our White Christmas! 

Jenna came down having changed into her new Frozen play dress. I also had to change Seth into his clothes for the day because he was so sticky from all the candy he kept sneaking! And no wonder, the poor kid was starving! It was after 9 AM when we finally sat down to eat. 

Ah slinkies. The present that lasts two seconds. They had just got them out of the boxes and started dancing to the music with them and immediately they were entangled almost beyond separation. I swear I have spent at least an hour in the days following that morning untangling slinkies! 

Cinnamon rolls, sausage, hash browns and fruit for breakfast- YUM! While we were eating and excitedly discussing everything we had opened Kent said something about that we had already had such a great Christmas morning that maybe we didn't even need to open any of our other presents, and the kids actually AGREED with him! That is pretty amazing to think about. They would have been perfectly content with just what they had because Kent had planned and led out with the PERFECT gift for each of them! He is phenomenal. 

It only took a reminder of the presents they got for each other to snap them out of it though. Jenna had to go first because she was SO EXCITED!! 

Seth was so cute opening gifts. He is a funny little guy. We opened presents until lunch time. The kids want to play with each thing as they open it so it takes a long time!!

In between his turns Caleb always went back over to the counter to work on his Lego set from that morning. It was cute to see his determination, but also unbelievable how uninterested he was in practically everything else because he was fixated on finishing! An important character trait to understand for the future! 

This tortilla press I got is so authentic, hay solamente instrucciones en espanol!

You guys. Jenna got a new blanket. Again. Probably for the last time. But she was SO HAPPY. 

The one by her cheek is the new one and the one in front is the old one. I kept catching her looking at them, or feeling one and then the other and smiling. It was super cute!

After a quick and random lunch we dove back in starting out with presents from our sweet babysitter Abby. We texted her these two pictures. 

This gift definitely wins the labor of love award. We had all the Harry Potter audio books in MP3 files so Kent converted them all and then burned them all onto CDs. He started working on it right after Thanksgiving. Natalie has listened to them seriously every day, and fully acknowledges all the effort he put into this gift!

Then we opened our presents from my Grandmom. She is a creative genius! Seriously, so talented!!

She made one of these for EVERY member of our extended family!! What a sweetheart. 

Then we opened the presents from my mom. Seth opened his first. When everyone saw the owl they thought it was so cute and Natalie attempted to trade him for it with one of her other gifts until she saw that Jenna also got one and realized Grammy made one for each of them. They all love their "book with a thing" presents she gives them! I also an super excited about my present from her- the new morning devotional book by President Monson! Hooray!! 

After that we did presents from the Hansen cousin gift exchange. I love the themed presents we did this year of books. It worked out perfectly! 

Shortly after this Seth went into meltdown mode. We were all feeling overwhelmed I think. It is just so much to take it all at once! So we took another break to put him down for a nap. He was so happy to peacefully read one of his new train books with me before willingly lying down in his crib, covering himself with his blanket and turning over with his back to me. I swear he fell asleep before I finished the song and closed the door.

I came down to find everyone doing their own thing, completely enthralled in their new adventures! =o]

After a while though Kent got the ball rolling again. 

Jenna got a knockoff American Girl doll and couldn't have been more thrilled! =o]

Please also notice in the back ground that she is the proud new owner of her very own trash can. She loves getting to through things away in her own room now instead of having to go into the bathroom. And it's pink to boot!

Really I think Kent wanted to get through the other presents so that we could get to THE presents. The ones in the basement that no one knew about! I have the coolest video of chasing them down the stairs and telling Kent to go faster so we could see their faces as they reacted to the surprise!

They were THRILLED! Caleb was definitely the most excited. He has since spent HOURS playing, even by himself when he can't convince someone else. We played a couple rounds taking turns going back and forth between the foosball table and the ping pong table Grandma and Grandpa MacKay gave us. 

When we finally came back upstairs we found that someone had cleared our driveway and sidewalk for us! We have such kindhearted neighbors! What a Christmas blessing!

The aftermath! =o]

When Seth woke up he opened a few more of his presents, but really he was kind of over it so Jenna was happy to help him.

Then it was time for our Christmas Buffet! (We have ham and bacon once a year lol)

We watched Charlie Brown Christmas while we ate dinner. It was SO GOOD! After just kind of snacking throughout the day it felt good to sit down and eat real food. 

I think Kent had thirds. And I think it is adorable when he curls his toes under like that sometimes. 

After the movie Seth opened the last of his presents while we ate our special treats, before we all headed up stairs to get ready for bed and to start the 12 Days of Christmas. 

We never get the after Christmas blues because for us it is the beginning of a whole other special set of traditions that help us end and begin the new year focusing on Christ.
Merry Christmas! And God bless us, every one!