Christmas Time

Christmas was pretty amazingly awesome this year. I love my family so much and I don't know where I would be without them. We have had a tradition for as long as I can remember of doing a Christmas Eve dinner and party at my Dad's house. This year because my parents are on their mission, my oldest brother volunteered up his house to continue the tradition. The boys sang Jingle Bells this year. I was hoping to get something much more entertaining ready this year, but with trying to get ready to move and a few other things that seemed to crash into our lives all about the same time, this was about all that we could get worked out. 

Here are the boys performing their song.

We always act out the nativity each year. This is one of the kids favorite thing to do each year. There is always a competition about who gets to play Mary. Eli was one of the three wise men.

Ethan also played one of the wise men this year. I love how baby Jesus is up and wiggling. Our rendition is always so much fun to watch.

Christmas morning was so much fun. Eli is at the most amazingly fun age ever. He was so excited to get to bed after we put out the milk and cookies. And he had so many questions this year.... that was interesting, but kind of fun to see how his imagination works. Look at how big of a smile this kid has. He was one happy little boy.

Ethan is still a little young to be super excited the night before about Santa. I don't think he quite gets the full idea of Santa but he was definitely all smiles in the morning. He is such a cute little boy.

Then we have miss Lara. I think she had an awesome Christmas. She was very happy as well and I think she   really  enjoyed the things that she got. Sometimes Lara can be a bit of a challenge because she definitely still has the heart and hopes and dreams of a young child but yet.... she is an adult. But in the same sense, sometimes this makes all the more fun because she reminds you of the innocence of children and her excitement and joy of Christmas is still in full swing in her eyes in the morning. It was very fun to have her get to celebrate Christmas morning with us.

My three boys. I love these guys so much. Merry Christmas boys.

Lara with a few of her Christmas presents.

Ethan loving his new Batcave.

Eli playing with his dad and brother. He got a Circuit Board from Santa and was very excited to test it out.

Lara coloring her new bag.

Ethan with his new Tablet... as he likes to call it.

Eli got some new drawing books from Lara, he was very excited about them. She sure knows him well and they are kindred spirits when it comes to drawing. He enjoys it about as much as she does.

This is how excited he was about them. He ran over and gave her a great  big hug.

Eli and Ethan gave Lara the movie Annie because she always wants to watch it, but she doesn't have a copy of her own.... well, now she does.

Eli was super excited to open his Tablet as well. He was extremely sad when Lara opened hers from Grandma and Grandpa and he didnt' think that he was getting one, because this was pretty much the only thing that he asked for. But he was all smiles when he realized he had gotten one to.

The boys gave each other a power ranger ZORD. They are both really into the power rangers right now. Not moms favorite thing in the world. But we have a had a few conversations on the difference between what they see on TV being fake and how they should behave in real life. It only took once of them getting band from watching power rangers for them to not play REAL life power rangers anymore. Now they just play with their action figures instead. And they play really well with them together.

Grandma and Grandpa Hatch came over later in the day to bring them their Christmas presents. Once again, they were very spoiled. And as always, they will continue to be the best dressed kids in town.

Aunt Heather and Uncle Randall gave Eli a Spy kit. If anyone knows Eli, he is very big into make believe and playing spys and detectives is one of his favorite things to do. He was very excited about it.

Ethan playing with his Hot wheels power track.

One of Lara's cute new outfits that she got, well at least the shirt and vest. She got the PJ pants to, but they are not part of the outfit.

Lara's other new shirt. I think she looks so cute in this one. If she puts her three quarter sleeve white one on underneath this one, I think it will be super cute.

Gaye and Randy got Lara this super cute Pink Crock Boots. They fit her perfectly and look really cute on her.

Lara still working on her new coloring bag. I think she will have this one all colored before the day is even up.

Christmas morning wore this poor kid out. We were just sitting there playing games and looked up at him and he was out.

Lara got a new password journal as well. She was super excited about this. Not sure what are all the secrets that she has to keep in that journal of hers, but she wanted one of these so bad.

This is my new all time favorite picture of my son. This just proves without a doubt that this boy belongs to his father. He was so tired after all of the fun activities of Christmas day. He was playing on his new tablet and he was out. Twice today he crashed in some super cute positions that were just to picture perfect.

Merry Christmas everybody. We had a pretty amazing one. Now to start packing up and getting ready to move in a couple of days.