Fun at Christmas Time

Christmas Eve
For Christmas eve morning Tom, Uncle Geoffy and I went to spend Christmas morning at Lani and Steve's, since it was easier to not bring each other's presents to Provo to save space in our cars. Oh gosh, how much fun it was watching the opening of presents and taking of pictures! It was really dark in the morning (we had to do this before I went to work at 8:00). We could tell that no one was up as we sneaked up the stairs to knock on their door! Would've been fun to have had Santa's suits on. I would be dressed up as Santa and Tom as Mrs. Santa! I would've loved to have seen Steve and Lani's half-awake eyes as they looked at us thinking we must be a Nightmare before Christmas~! We stumbled our way in taking our snowy shoes off at the door as we were greeted with a warm sleepy welcome. Lani stumbled to put on the Christmas music on the laptop as Steve groggily tried to find the plug to put on the lights on the tree. After succeeding the ambience was providing a warm glow in the room. I could feel the excitement building so I went and fetched my camera to take a picture of the before and after of the hallway to show the kids coming down with their mom and dad, while Tom and Geoff waited in the front room. I was so excited I was beside myself. I felt like the little child! We could hear in the monitor Mom and Dad announcing the news of 'opening presents time' as they slowly awakened those sleeping munchkins! (There will be a time when they will be waking them for Christmas at 2:00 in the morning hehe). I took my shot of the empty dark hallway and as they were coming out of their bedroom, I found a perfect shot as I could see the little ones heading the Christensen entourage, with Amara taking the lead with her little legs! SNAP! There it was the perfect shot! Then boom came a sound and I could no longer hear little legs! I looked up from my camera and to my horror I had blinded the little leader with my flash! She was on the ground not knowing what happened to her and everyone else who was following her was also blinded while trying to avoid a Christmas Eve collision to the sweet playing music! All I could hear was "Oh No!", "Uh Oh!", "Watch Out" and "Grandma you blinded us!". I didn't think it was lyrics to the Christmas music. Everyone survived that near collision and forgave me quickly and off to open presents we went. As I walked into the front room all I could see in the warmth of the room was my husband shaking his head with a grin and a comment, "You shouldn't have done that, now we have to take the camera away from you!" Then he laughed and all was well.

Christmas Day at M M and J's!
Micah and Mandy so graciously accepted us as we asked to spend Christmas there with them at the last minute. We didn't know if we would be able to get to Christmas in Provo/Orem with the impeding doomsday winter storm that was going to hit while I was at work. Lani and Steve left early to beat the storm and I made it after work but Tom had to wait for Geoff as we found out he had to work. But we all cleared the storm and found ourselves awaiting Christmas morning. Since I arrived in the evening of Christmas and the children were with their dad at their uncle's house having a Christmas evening party, I decided to look around the old neighborhood with it's lights and lots of snow, especially in the hills! I got stuck but got out and headed to the store that almost closed on me ( I forgot I needed to bring salad for Christmas dinner at Jim and Debby's). It was a little hairy there for a moment. I got a call to be invited to Mandy's mom and dad's. I LOVED IT! Mandy has such a sweet and fun family! I sure got to luvin' them and glad I am a part of their lives now. We had lots of laughter and Jaxon just loved his train he got from grandma and grandpa ( I did, too!). It was such a cool train I must say! I hung out till it was time for Jaxon's beddy time and home we went. I love Jaxon's eyes as he would get excited pushing it! In the morning, I kept awaking with anticipation. I kept asking Tom who was dead asleep if he think he heard Micah or Mandy awake for opening presents time because I didn't want to miss a thing!! Light did shine in the morning front room with Geoff sleeping on the couch but no sign of life still. I was thinking... "Why am I thinking at this hour when no one else is?!". I did get very excited when everyone start coming out." I looked at Micah, then I looked at Jaxon and it was like de ja vu. I almost cried seeing and remembering Christmas when Micah was a baby like Jaxon!! OH NOW GET THIS... with Jaxon's famous smile he was in wonder and didn't know where to start till he seen his stocking! Yup, WE even had stockings, that was an awesome surprise!! A delicious one at that! Thank you M M and J for a Christmas worth having, everyone else joined us later that day to exchange presents and stories! At night, we had Christmas FANTABULOUS dinner at their dad's! It was decorated really nice and the food was all so exquisitely delicious! It was definitely memorable in it's own right! Thank you Jim and Debby for inviting us. It was so dang fun! I love our family! It was so nice to see our grandbabies not so sick anymore. Jarom's and Jaxon's first Christmas and we got to spend it with them! Thank you God for the blessing of having us move here so we could be a part of our family and have time with them! It was so cute and caring as Spencer calls me on Christmas eve to invite me to his family's home to play board games. I didn't get time to make it there but I can so appreciate to be made to feel included and thought of! That is what family is all about! Thank you Spencer's family for that, too! I did have one sick baby tho... and that was April! Poor thang. I did visit her and Spencer before going to sleep. I was so worried! I prayed for her several times that night. Always a mommy here. She has a good husband for sure who took care of her. She got to feeling better the next day as we headed to Salt Lake to eat at Spaghetti Factory! Whoa that was delicious! We missed having Joe, Lani and her family there and Geoff stood at Micah's cuz he didn't feel well he said. Maybe next time they can join us. We even took in Tucanos before we left back to Roosevelt our treat to our kids! It is always fun to hang out with our kids. Gotsta do some sledding with hot chocolate with whipped cream when it is not so cold! And I need to remember to send Mandy back her present I took accidentally while packing up to leave their house to head home. UGH! Stealing presents is not how you want to end your Christmas season!! Double Ugh! Bad bad mom!