Christmas

We spent Christmas this year at my mom's house. I thought it would be hard not being in our house, but it really wasn't. I actually liked that I didn't have to decorate, especially the tree. I have always hated decorating the tree. If there was a way that I could store it fully decorated, I would.

We did our traditional Christmas Eve dinner at my Mom's house, and put the boys to bed around 9:30 pm. Travis was sound asleep by 10:00 pm & I watched a movie then Mass from The Vatican. I got up around 1:00 am to do the gift delivery thing, then went to bed. The boys didn't get up until about 7:00 am, which totally surprised me. Travis and I were up watching The Today Show at 6:00 am thinking they'd be up any minute. We did the Santa thing when they got up & decided we'd do our immediate family gifts later in the day.

Normally we host a big breakfast at our house, but since we were at my mom's we went simple with the menu. For the first time ever my sister and Liam came. I assume that is because we were at my parent's house, and not ours. We'll never see her for breakfast again once we move.

After breakfast we exchanged gifts with my parents, sister & aunt, then sat around eating off the snack table being lazy. I could have very easily taken a nap, but didn't get one. The boys were up running around like mad men, making a ton of noise so we all sat & watched them. It was great to just sit and doing nothing, we didn't even get out of our PJ's all day!

On Sunday, Travis & the boys went skiing & I went to the house and cleaned. It felt good to be doing something physical for a change. We've all gotten lazy without yard work and house work to keep us busy.

I think Preston looks a bit like Ron Weasley in this picture. In either year two or three at Hogwarts, Ron has a hat just like this one.
Parker got a Paper Jamz guitar from Santa and he's been putting on a daily concert for us.
I've been trying to talk Preston into letting me redo his room when we move and use a bit of U of U stuff. I want to do it a bit more grown up, get him a full sized bed, etc. He wants to keep his firetruck stuff. Dude, you are too old for firetrucks!
Parker sat on Jessa's lap half the morning so she could help him open presents. To him the helping part was letting her throw his wrapping paper in the garbage sack. Lucky girl!
The annual get to open one present on Christmas Eve PJ's. Neither of them has figured out that the one gift they get to open is PJ's. Parker wondered all day what was in the box.
Grandpa & Preston on Christmas Eve.
Liam, Grandpa, Parker, Preston & Grandma on Christmas Eve. It was impossible to get a good picture of all five of them. My dad is worse than the kids when it comes to pictures. He can't hold still and won't look at the camera. I'm not sure what face Parker is pulling.
Me, Parker, Cricket and Preston on Christmas Eve.
Preston, Cricket, Liam, Parker & Sonny on Christmas Eve.
This is one of the few years that I like my mom's tree. She and I have very opposite taste in decorating. I like very traditional Christmas decorations. I have a village, snowmen & my tree is always red & green. Each year she does a different tree, and it is almost always colors like black, gold, turquoise, pink, etc. Not my style at all. I love the red & green this year with the snowmen hats. She also collects nutcrackers. Preston tried to count, and it is somewhere in the 200 range.