Christmas

Christmas morning

I was the second one to awake that morning. I woke up at 6:00 and my wonderful mother was already in the kitchen preparing our traditional sugar cake breakfast. Sugar Cake is a German tradition, and it's my favorite part about Christmas morning. So delicious! Everyone else slowly started to wake up, and all gathered in the living room before we brought out Kate.

We woke up Kate (this picture of her waking up is probably my favorite picture ever), and at first she was like "Why are you waking me up?!?", and then she remembered that Santa came and got really really excited! When she came in the living room and saw her Mermaid doll that she's been asking for for months now, she was so excited! She was jumping up and down and went straight to picking up that doll. Then she saw the Little Mermaid movie. I think she had forgotten she had asked for that because she was so surprised! She also loved her Jessie doll and fan that were in her stocking. I think it's safe to say that Santa did very well this year! Max slept through this first part of Chirstmas but he eventually woke up and saw the Mickey Mouse he had recieved.

Then we feasted on sugar cake and hot chocolate, relaxed for just a little while, and then it was time to get ready for church.  It was a wonderful program.  We sang hymns, enjoyed some special musical numbers, a couple short talks, and church was wrapped up early!  When we got back home Kate was sooo excited to open the rest of her presents she refused to even get changed out of her church clothes.  The rest of us did, and then it was time for the party to begin!

Present Time!


We all got so spoiled this year! 

Kate got: (from us) a v-tech computer, a princess tent, Sleeping Beauty and Tangled play sets, a disneyland castle doll house, The Wizard of Oz book with a ruby slippers necklace, The Princess Bride (that may be for me me. haha), (from Grandma) a set of Little Golden Books, some paints, a pirate dress up set, and a treasure box.  When she saw that she had gotten a treasure chest she said "My dubloons!".  haha.  She loves pirate stuff!

Max got: (from us) a little football and basketball, a monkey rattle, a fisher price cars set, (from Kate) a cookie monster, (from Grandma) a teething ring, some musical keys, and some much needed clothes!

Dustin got: (from me) a Suns jacket, basketball shorts, a Wipeout Wii game, (from Kate) a Doofenshmirtz doll, (from Kate and Max) Dustin's favorite picture of the three of them in a frame painted by Kate, (from Jennifer) a hand drawn poster of Michael Jordan, and (from my parents) NBA 2k12.

Erin got: (from Dustin) an iPhone!, a cd label maker, The Help book, (from Kate and Max) a jumpdrive and cash, (from my mom) some bare minerals makeup, and a set of pearls so I can Mad Men it up. 

I had Jared this year and I got him Lego Harry Potter for the Wii and some film for his Canon SLR.  Dustin had Jen and he got her some nice pencils and a leather bound sketchbook.  We also got my parents a cute picture of their grandkids.

After a Christmas feast of ham and potatoes, we headed over to Sherice's house for our gift exchanges.

Round 2!

This year we drew names among the grandkids as well as the adults.  Kate got Emma a Cinderella doll, Jaylee got Kate a disney princess Memory game, Emma got Jaylee some princess shoes (I'm noticing a trend here...), Maddock gave Max some little shaker things, and Max got Maddock a spiderman mask!  The kids all received some cute clothes from Grandma Watson and then we all had them close their eyes while they brought out the big present...

big kid bikes!  I didn't bring my zoom lens with me do all these pictures are cropped really tight.  Sorry.  Deal with it.  They were so excited about these bikes!  Kate kept trying to ride it inside the house. 

We all exchanged gifts as well.  I had Beth and I gave her a steel stamped necklace with her kids names on it and a copy of The Help. Beth had Sherice and she made her a super cute advent calender.  Which we all cried over.  Not sure why.  haha.  Sherice had Lacie and she made her some really cute quotes-on-canvas stuff for her dorm, Lacie had me and she gave me a Harry Potter Wii game.  Dustin had Jaron and he did an illustration of his favorite football player of all time, Emmitt Smith.  I think there were some tears shed here as well.  He also gave him the first season of Modern Family.  Jaron had Scott and he gave him some games.  Scott had Dustin and he made one of the coolest things ever!

He called it a "man-craft".  It's really really awesome.  Dustin can't wait to hang it in our office!  Our gift exchange was amazing this year!  The rest of Christmas day was pretty laid back.  We hung out at Sherice's for a while, played Uno Roboto, and then headed back to my families house again.  When it got dark, Grandpa took Kate outside and played with some leftover sparklers. 

We had SUCH an amazing Christmas this year!  We love our families very much!!  We are very blessed to have such awesome people in our lives. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!