Merry Christmas!

We had a lot of fun this Christmas.  We always let the kids open their stockings before breakfast, then they can go get dressed while we cook.  We just did monkey bread, scrambled eggs, and hot chocolate.  No stress there, so that was nice.  PC kept joking with the kids for the past couple of months that all they were getting for Christmas was underwear and socks.  They were still worried even on Christmas Eve that that was really going to happen.  The last thing Goofy asked before going to bed was, "Are we really only getting underwear and socks for Christmas?"  They all really did need new socks, so they all got socks in their stockings.  I absolutely love this picture of Baby Girl holding up her new socks!

We played a trick on Tink this year.  She has been wanting an iPad mini for a long time now.  We got a good deal on Black Friday, so we did get her one, but we had to have fun with it.  I wrapped my old iPad box up and put an eye pad inside it.  We have the whole thing videotaped and it is pretty awesome.  All the kids get so excited when they see the box, and Tink even tries to come and give me a hug before she opens the box.  We tell her to open it and she sees the eye pad and does her typical "tween" look at us--head titled, eyes up, and a little sigh.  I gave her her real gift and when she opened that one, she said, "Is this one real?"  It was still in the shrink wrap, so yes, it was real.  She has loved it!  That was her gift of love.  Her gift of fun was a bluetooth speaker and accessory kit for her new iPad, and her gift of learning was an iTunes gift card.  Bucko also got lucky this year with a Nintendo 3DSXL for his gift of love.  We gave him a 3DS game for his gift of fun and some books and a drum pad/sticks for his gift of learning.  Minnie got a fake American Girl doll (a gymnast one) for her gift of fun, a reading pillow for her bed for her gift of love, and a cookbook and kid knives for her gift of learning.  Goofy inherited Bucko's old DS, so we got him a case for it and a couple games for his gift of love.  He got a couple books for learning and a sit on bouncy ball for his gift of fun.  Baby Girl was easy.  She got some bath toys for love, an electronic nursery rhyme book for learning, and a farm animal toy for fun.  The kids exchanged gifts as well.  Tink made a sign for Bucko. Bucko gave a stuffed animal to Goofy.  Minnie made a babysitting bag for Tink.  Goofy got a Minnie Mouse doll for Baby Girl, and Baby Girl got Minnie a word search puzzle book and nail polish.
For lunch, we went over to Nana and Papa's.  We were able to Skype with Uncle Mike and soon-to-be Aunt Collette.  Then we came home and packed, so we could leave for Utah the next day.