Christmas Week Part 2

We left Ali's house around 8 pm and the kids opened their pjs from us.  We took a few pics and sent them to bed by 8:30...

We have some pretty great kids.  Jack-2, Candy-4, Brooke-6, Megan-8

I had all my wrapping done early this year, so I was excited to relax and enjoy It's a Wonderful Life.  But then we realized our Skype was not working and Dan spent an hour and a half troubleshooting.  He fixed all the problems so we would be ready to skype with my brother in the Czech Republic on Christmas morning.  We went to bed around 10:30.  Here's the room all ready to go for the morning.

We put up the baby gate to keep the kids upstairs.  We told them they weren't allowed to do anything before 6. At 6:01, Megan and Brooke went into Candy and Jack's room to tell us on the monitor that they were awake.  They were SO excited!

 Stockings...

All of us before we started opening.  The big box in front of the TV was a climbing toy for the backyard--that was their big gift from us.  Santa brought a fitness tracker for Megan (she's been getting over 25000 steps each day), a magnatile building set for Brooke, an American Girl type doll for Candy, and a tool bench for Jack.  All of those have been big hits.  Our kids are at such a fun age. They all fully believe in the magic and they are still easy to please--they each got just what they wanted. 

We opened presents for about 2 hours with a break halfway through to play with stuff that had already been opened.  We started making a big breakfast (complete with OJ, Egg Nog, and Chocolate Milk) when Tyler called in!  Hi!  Technology rocks.  Here we all are, in 5 different locations, all talking and listening and on video.

After talking to Tyler, I finished making walnut rolls and we headed to Shad's.  We got there around 12:30.  This is the only pic I took, but we played, saw their presents (Carrie came too), ate lots of good food, and watched a movie.  We left there around 3:30. 

We had Christmas dinner with the T fam, Ali's fam, and another fam.  We are good friends with all of them and it was so fun.  8 adults and 15 kids.  More yummy food and chatting and playing.  Dinner was at 5 pm and we left just before 8 to take our tired kids home. 

Saturday was rainy but still muggy and warm.  Dan got the climbing toy set up and the girls LOVE it.  Dad came for a quick visit and helped with the setup too. 

All in all, a fantastic Christmas.  We just felt so very thankful for the many blessings we enjoy.

Sunday was nice too, a pretty quiet day and my last day in nursery--I'm teaching the 8 year olds now (Megan's age but not her class).