Christmas Day

For Christmas wish lists this year, we had the boys write down 3 wants and 3 needs that they had. They had very reasonable requests, and all of their needs were met, as most of their wants were, too.

 

Kanyon's 3 needs were: "sokxs" (socks), "pellow" (pillow), and clock (an alarm clock). His 3 wants were: Lord of the Rings Legos Blanket, Golf Billiards, and The Butt Putt.  Santa brought Kanyon a new pillow, the butt putt, and a Mater alarm clock...

Micah's 3 needs were: Duck Dynasty backpack, clothes--pants, socks, long sleeve shirts, pajamas, and a Flame Blanket. His 3 wants were: Lord of the Ring Legos, Remote Control Jeep, and Cabela's Hunting wii game. Santa brought him a remote control jeep and a Cabela's hunting game.

Jonah's 3 needs were: Saints Blanket, 2 pairs of jeans, and snow boots. His 3 wants were: BSU baseball cap, Remote Control Monster Truck, and 49ers Pajamas. Santa brought him the giant remote control truck.

Ammon's 3 needs were: Patriots Blanket, sports goggles, and nice jeans. His 3 wants were: Call of Duty Black Ops Xbox 360 game, Xbox Controller, and Patriots flat bill hat. Santa brought him an Xbox Controller and the Call of Duty Black Ops Xbox game.

(Notice how there's no stocking next to Ammon's gifts from Santa? That's because he thought it would be more fun to have the stockings hidden, and have to look and find them. So...only his stocking was hidden on Christmas morning. He was so confused when he saw that his brothers had stockings and he didn't, but he finally found it in the living room behind the piano!!)

 

As Josh and I lay in bed on Christmas morning, we could hear noises that woke us both up at 6:00. Josh went to investigate, and found Kanyon hiding next to the red couch in the family room. His face had a giant perma-grin on it! He was so happy that he'd escaped his string-tied shut door, and was ecstatic to see the gifts that Santa had brought, and so excited that he was the only one awake! It made Josh so happy to see Kanyon so happy, but he sent Kanyon back to his room to wait for everyone else. He could barely get the door open wide enough to let Kanyon back in! Josh came back to bed, and a half hour later, we could hear Kanyon making noises again, so we decided to just get up and welcome Christmas morning at 6:30! Josh cut the strings tying the boys' doors shut, and Kanyon went into his brothers' rooms and woke them up.

 

The boys came out and found their gift piles (and Ammon searched and found his stocking) around the Christmas tree, and began to open their stockings. 

In each of the boys' stockings, they received bath soap, candy, candy bars, socks or underwear, and new posters. Ammon's poster has all the NFL teams' logos on it, Jonah and Micah both got Duck Dynasty posters, and Kanyon's poster has characters from the Disney movie Planes on it. That was a fun surprise for them to get the posters.

We told them they couldn't start opening the wrapped gifts yet, so they played with their Santa presents for a while.


Jonah playing with his RC Monster Truck

Micah playing with his light-up RC jeep

Ammon was happy to get more Xbox items

Kanyon hitting a golf ball into his new Butt Putt
(it makes a farting sound every time a ball goes in)

The first gifts the boys unwrapped were for all of them: a new wii (our old one has been glitching), and a gaming chair (similar to a banana chair).

The boys drew each other's names to give gifts to again this year. I took them shopping one at a time, and gave them all $10 to buy something for the brother whose name they drew. Jonah and Kanyon had each other, and Ammon and Micah had each other. Jonah and Kanyon unknowingly got each other the exact same gift: a dart gun.

Ammon got Micah a soft ball gun, and Micah got Ammon a shooting target. The boys also all gifted each other chocolate bars. They did a good job shopping, and enjoyed getting something for their brother. It was fun for all them to open up their brother gifts on Christmas.

 

The boys were really sweet to get Josh and I gifts, too. Ammon was very generous and Josh and I were surprised to see 2 gifts for each of us under the tree from him. I loved his wrapping style:

He got me a very nice new frying pan and a spatula. I was amazed at how thoughtful his gifts were!

The other boys didn't know what Ammon had gotten us, and when they saw the wrapped gifts from him under the tree, they guessed that this one was an elephant sausage:

That made us all laugh! It was actually a Duck Dynasty floor mat that Ammon had rolled up. He also got Josh some nice camouflage gloves.

Jonah and Micah made gifts for us at school, and they colored their own designs on the wrapping paper.

Their gifts were wall hangings that they'd created themselves. Jonah cut out a bird and put it on music paper and added colorful surroundings. Micah painted a poinsettia. They did good work!

Josh and I exchanged gifts this year, too. Josh almost always surprises me with gifts, although we say we'll just fill each other's stockings each year. So this year, I was prepared for that to happen again, and I got him a gift as well. I'm the kind of person who can't handle holding in surprises--the excitement is too much for me to contain it inside and I usually end up spoiling it. But this year, I was so proud of myself for not telling him I'd gotten him anything. I hid the item in my closet, I didn't wrap it too soon so he wouldn't know I got him something, and I never mentioned it. It wasn't a huge gift--but I wanted him to be surprised on Christmas morning because I never surprise him.

 

Back in November, when we were at the spa, he saw men wearing robes to the hot springs, and he mentioned that he wanted one, too. I remembered that statement, and I got him a robe when I went out of town at the beginning of December. He liked it, but he didn't act too surprised. I thought maybe he didn't like it--but then he told me that he already knew I'd gotten him one because he saw my receipt a few weeks earlier. I was so irritated that my surprise was ruined!

 

Josh got me a new set of steak knives (our old ones had been breaking, and every time we had guests over for dinner we didn't have enough for everyone). I was quite surprised--I had been wondering what the large, heavy gift under the tree was!

 

But the best gift of all was one I'd been requesting for over a year: a Mother's ring with birthstones representing all my sons. I'd really been wanting one, and had been dropping not-so-subtle hints for months. I wear 3 rings between my 2 hands representing 3 generations of family: an opal ring from my grandma given to me by my grandpa after she died, a silver CTR ring from my parents when I graduated seminary, and my engagement and wedding ring from my husband. I wanted one more ring to represent my boys, too. Now I have 4 rings representing 4 generations of my family on my fingers! I just love it! It's so gorgeous! There's a garnet for Ammon, an amethyst for Kanyon, and 2 sapphires for Jonah and Micah. The red, blue, & purple colors are such a good combination! He had the jewels set in white gold, and it is sized to fit on my pinky finger (which is what I wanted). I had no idea how expensive this ring would be, or I never would've asked, but I will treasure this gift forever. I admire it every day, and I'm so grateful to Josh for getting it for me! (this picture really doesn't do it justice)

We unwrapped gifts slowly on Christmas morning. I enjoyed watching everyone uncover their presents one at a time. I like having Christmas morning at my own home with just my own little family. It is so peaceful and not chaotic and I revel in the spirit of happiness that is felt.

 When all the gifts were opened, we all spent time with our new things...
Josh and I scratched our annual lottery tickets from our stockings (no big winnings again this year--we both got less than $10).

 

Kanyon had Ammon play with him on his new Golf Billiards game.

Micah put together his new legos.

And Ammon had Jonah play his new Xbox game with him (when Jonah wasn't driving his new RC truck around!).

 

My mom gave me a "darn-it" doll that we all got a good laugh out of! And later that morning, as we were cleaning the house, I accidentally stubbed Josh's toe, and he ran and grabbed the darn-it doll and smacked it on the couch and yelled "darn it, darn it, darn it", and we laughed all over again! It was so funny!

I took the traditional photo of each boy with their Christmas gifts. They were all in charge of creating their own display...

Jonah received his needs: Saints blanket and jeans, and his wants: Patriots hat, RC truck, and 49ers pajama pants. The 49ers pajama pants were THE hardest gift to find this year. I looked in several stores, Josh searched online, and we couldn't find any. Aunt Linette came to the rescue and found some fabric and sewed them herself for Jonah. We were so grateful to her!

Micah received his needs of a Duck Dynasty backpack and all of his clothing requests (although he discovered the next week that if he would just do his laundry more often, he probably didn't need so many new clothes!). And although he wanted a Flame blanket, I couldn't find one anywhere, so instead, he got a Pirate Legos blanket that he was still happy with. He also got his wants: a remote control jeep, the Cabela's hunting wii game, and he received some City Legos instead of his requested Lord of the Rings legos.

Ammon received his needs: Patriots blanket, nice jeans, and sports goggles. His sports goggles were the most expensive item--and hopefully they will last him several years. He and my mom also helped purchase the Nike frames. He also got all of his wants: Call of Duty Black Ops Xbox game, Xbox controller, and a Patriots flat bill hat (which he's wearing in the photo).

 Kanyon got all of his needs: socks, pillow, and alarm clock. He also received his wants of golf billiards set and the butt putt. But instead of a Lord of the Rings Legos blanket (which I couldn't find online or in stores--I'm not sure it even exists), I got him a Monster Truck blanket instead which he was cool with.

 

As the boys were playing with all their new things, and setting up their picture displays, I took my favorite photo of the day: of Josh sleeping on the couch in his new robe. We'd stayed up really late the night before getting Christmas ready, and we'd been woken up early too with Kanyon's excited desires, so before we got to work cleaning the house and making Christmas dinner, Josh squeezed in a nap.

We ate Christmas dinner early that afternoon in our home and Ed & Kathy, and Tim & Barb joined us. We had a nice meal of ham, mashed potatoes, rolls, cream corn, apple pie, and sparkling cider.

I'm so blessed to say that Christmas 2013 was a peaceful, happy, and memorable day for our family!