Christmas Day

When we put the girls to bed on Christmas eve, we put up a large clock display and told them that when that clock said, 6 o'clock or later, then they could come out and look in their stockings.

Well, Christmas morning, Will came crawling in our bed a little past 7 am, he was all by himself, which was strange because he can't get out of his crib by himself.  So usually one of the girls will have gotten him out, but neither of the girls was with him.  I thought, oh dear, merry Christmas to me, he finally figured out he can easily climb out of his crib himself.  So I got up and went to investigate.  And there was Ava in the toy room just playing with her new doll.  She saw me and turned and said, "Mommy, can you play with me?"   I said, sure, but do you remember what day it is?  Suddenly, her eyes went huge and she realized it was Christmas and ran to see if Santa had come.  Lily was still sound asleep! I keep wondering how many more years we will get to sleep in on Christmas, this one may have been our last, but I will enjoy it while it lasts.  We have never had a year where the kids wake up super early, just dying to see their presents.  It's great! :)

So Ava and Will came and checked out their stockings while we waited for Lily to wake up.

 Ava was quite pleased with the content.  :)

 So was Will.

 Cory had to wake Lily up...we were all too excited.  :)

Once they finished with the stockings the present opening began.  It was so much fun!

I made this picnic blanket for Ava to go with her tea set that Santa was bringing her.  I let her pick out the fabrics to use.  And I would have never put these fabrics together, but I seriously love it!  Have you ever seen a more girly looking blanket?

Will was just as fun opening presents on Christmas as the night before.

 Uncle Bradyn got all the kids Christmas presents before he left.  That was awfully nice of him.  The kids really enjoyed his gifts he gave.  Guess you get to know what a person might like after living with them for a while.  :)

 Ava ended up getting the long sought after and desired tea set that had been on her Christmas list since August.  :)  All the kids loved playing tea party, but Will really loved it!! He kept pouring his "tea" and holding up his cup and saying "clink" wanting to clink our cups together before we drink it.  So cute!

 Ava was a great host, pouring the tea.

 Lily couldn't wait to decorate her Littlest Pet Shop cat.

 CLINK!

 Ava loves playing with her tea set.

 Lily came to join the tea party.

 Will loved his bubble lawn mower.

 Ava also wanted to do her Littlest Pet Shop Panda right away.  Thank you, Uncle Bradyn.

 Uncle Bradyn also gave Ava this flower shower sprinkler attachment.  She was so eager to try it out.  So we went out at 8:30 am and turned it on.  I gotta say that is one thing I like about a warm Christmas, is when you get fun outdoor toys, you can go right out and use them!

 Thank you, Grandma Rappleye for these awesome felt story boards!  We love them!  

 The kids made these shirts for their cousins.  It was to see them sporting them!

 After a nice relaxing morning, we had some families in the ward over who also don't have any family in town for a Pot luck pool party.  I, of course, didn't take any pictures once again.  But it was a nice day for a swim and it was a Christmas miracle that the pool was clear.  It was looking a little murky the day before, but we put in some chemicals and they worked their magic over night.  We woke up to a crystal clear very inviting pool.  We had some good food and good fun.  It was a really wonderful day.

Here is the last picture of the day, the girls are doing their little Lego sets they got from one of our really good friends here.  I would never dream of buying the kids anything like this, for fear of Cory being upset about all the little pieces, so I'm very glad the kids have other people who do buy them things like this.  The girls have really loved putting these together in lots of different ways.

We would like to wish all of you a very merry Christmas.  We hope that you felt the spirit of  Christmas this time of year and that you will continue to spread it all throughout the year.  :)  Merry Christmas!