Christmas 2010

About 6:30am Tyson woke up to nurse.  As I was nursing him I noticed a light outside my bedroom.  Sure enough it was Porter's flashlight, shining from his bed out into the hall.  I woke up Jared and told him Porter was awake with his flashlight.  When Jared went in, Porter sweetly asked, "Dad, can I come into mommy and daddy's bed if I be a quiet boy?"  He had forgotten about Christmas.  Being 6:30am, Jared said "of course" and discreetly walked right next to him to divert his attention from all the candy on the stairs that Santa had dropped.  Tyson had finished eating and was back asleep and we hoped Porter would fall back to sleep also, but the flashlight continued to dash across our ceiling, on to the walls, and occasionally in our faces.  It was impossible to sleep.  About 7am Tyson began to wake too, so... why not rise and shine?  Jared asked Porter to go check and see if Santa came, and I hurried ahead of him to grab the video camera.  It wasn't hard to beat him because he paused at each step on the stairs to collect all the candy.  When he finally made his descend, his eyes widened as he spotted all the gifts under the tree.  It took him a while to even notice the Santa gifts that were out, but the excitement began all over again when he saw them.  I was really proud of the care he took with opening each gift.  Most kids would just open wildly, but he would bring each gift to me and ask me who is this from?  Usually it was Grandma & Papa, or an Uncle- they spoiled us rotten.  Before he would even start opening it he would say, "oh, wow, thank you so much" as if they could hear him.  Each gift had to be opened/assembled/and played with before moving on to the next one.

Even though we woke up at 6:30am, it was noon before I knew it.  We hurried and got ready and headed over to Richard and Lisa's house for the family Christmas party.  We had a delicious turkey dinner, and exchanged gifts.  The kids were in heaven playing with each other, and sharing their new toys.  (Except I think there were a couple cousins who were missing their new toys at home.)  It was a busy day that came and went quickly, and we were pretty exhausted by the time we made it home.  I think I slept that night deeper than I have had in a long time. 

I love the Christmas season.  It isn't Christmas morning and the gifts I look forward to each year, but the spirit of Christmas that lingers all month long.  The First Presidency stated in this years Christmas devotional that the Christmas spirit is the spirit of Christ.  I love the feelings I have as I look for ways to show love and kindness to those around me.  I love the Christmas carols that play almost daily in our home.  I love the bright lights and the MAGIC that happens inside each child.  I am grateful for the birth of our Savior, and for His perfect example.  I am grateful for my family!  I had a truly merry, and magical Christmas and feel so blessed to have my sweet little boys- Oh how I love them!  Merry Christmas everyone!

Our Christmas tree 2010

Sideways?  Porter picked the biggest boxes first- haha

Fun gifts from grama and papa

1st driving lesson

At the family Christmas party- missing Porter who's off with cousins as usual

Arr, sideways again!  Tyson's favorite part was the Christmas paper of course

This was the boys exchanging the gifts they picked out for one another.

 

Opening gifts usually went like this:  he opens, he says "wow" & "this is cool" or "thanks so much" and then brings it to daddy and says "can you open it?"  he plays with it for a little while until we finally convince him to open another gift.  it lasted for a few hours.