Christmas Morning!

Oh, happy day!!! It's finally here! The Grand Finale...

The kids were up bright and early, ready to find out what fun gifts lie wrapped under the tree. As usual, we started with stockings and let them enjoy whatever was in it for a while. It gives a little reprieve so that I can get some breakfast ready. Then it's time for the fun part... The presents! We each bought/made one gift for each person in the family. 9 family members each giving a gift to the 8 other members. If my math is right, there should be about 72 presents under/around the tree! That's one crowded tree.

Again this year, we separated the gifts into the gifter's piles (instead of the reciever) and took turns handing one gift at a time to the recipient. I like it so much more that way. It seems so much more personal.

Normally, the kids shop at resale stores (or their own toy stock) for their gifts for others. Caleb did his shopping on Amazon (whoo-hoo for on-line shopping!). He knew how much we liked the Courageous movie, so he got the book for dad to go along with it.

Ellie had been BEGGING for this stuffed animal pillow for months. Literally, begging. Every time I'd ask her what she wanted for Christmas, it would be "a dolphin stuffed animal pillow". I needed more ideas so I'd say, "What if they don't have any more?" She'd be so dramatic and say, "...then I don't want anything else." Well, daddy came through for her and she was SO happy.

One of Selah's gifts was the traditional baby gift... A Precious Moments "Baby's First Christmas 2011" ornament. It's so odd that she celebrated her first Christmas the year after she was born. All the other ornaments are dated the year the baby was born. Later that day, I was reflecting back on Christmas the year before. Christmas day was my 13th day overdue, and I was incredibly frustrated to be still pregnant. I was starting to wonder if I was EVER going to have this baby (duh). Oh, what a difference a year makes...

Christmas Eve at the Pemble's

My family....

All three of my brothers, my sister, and their families were together for Christmas Eve.

The girls. Dawn (my sister), Jenny (Bryan's wife), Mom, and me

ALL of the girls...

... and ALL of the guys.

Bryan's family...
Bryan, Jenny, Landon and Sydney

Jake and Laura (Dawn's son and his wife)

Scott, Emilee (Dawn's daughter), baby Carter and a very crabby looking Taylor

Kaitlyn (Dawn's daughter) and her boyfriend

Dawn and a much happier grandaughter, Taylor

Me and my hubby

Gingerbread Houses!

When the kids were younger, and there were fewer hand-me-downs, each of the kids got to open Christmas PJ's as an early present on Christmas Eve. I loved the idea of having fun, new Christmas pajamas for the Christmas morning, present-opening pictures. Now we have plenty of pajamas (and Grandma C. always comes through with new PJ's for Christmas), so I just can't reason buying new pajamas just for the cuteness factor on Christmas morn.

As Paul and I were doing our last minute Christmas stuff, we ran into a "sweet" deal on Gingerbread houses! Aldi's was trying to clear out their Christmas stuff and my kids LOVED putting one together last year. I had great intentions of figuring out how to bake our own kits, but didn't get the job done... The houses were a hit!

AND they kept the kiddos busy while I was finishing up the baking and last minute wrapping for Christmas Eve.

Even little Nates got his own!

Don't they look so.... sugary? And yes, they ate them piece by piece the entire week following Christmas.

Christmas at the Larson's

Christmas came early this year at Grandma and Grandpa Larson's! They were going to be in South Dakota over Christmas taking care of Great Grandma Marian, so we celebrated with the Larson side on December 10th. All the little kids on Paul's side of the family make it so much fun!

Selah and Elise (Jenny, Paul's sister's daughter) got matching Christmas dresses

The three amigos... Nathan, Jay, and Levi

(All within 6 months of eachother, and are finally starting to play well together! Yay!)

The four amigos... Nathan, Levi, Isaac, and Jay got matching sweaters

Grandpa Les with the annual "Happy Birthday, Jesus" cake... uh, I mean, "cookie" cake.

The kids are gathered around waiting for their piece of the cake after we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. I appreciate that Les and Connie go out of their way to get a special cake just for the purpose of drawing attention to the real reason we celebrate Christmas. Thanks.

My little bundle of Selah JOY is pulling up on the furniture quite well. My prediction is that it'll be another month or more before she's taking her first steps...

Grandma Connie and Selah

The final Christmas picture for the day... No nap + too much sugar= and ornery three-year-old.

Children's Christmas Pagent

Our church had their children's pagent the week before Christmas. It's a fairly short production, but so cute to watch. The grade school kids get up and sing a few songs while the pre-school kids act out the parts of the nativity scene.

Grace, Ellie, and my little shepherd boy.

Nathan took his shepherding job very seriously. He held his sheep and didn't crack a smile once. So much for welcoming the newborn king, huh? AND he stood still the entire time on stage without using his shepherd's hook as a toy sword! Big accomplishment for this little guy (although, I think it would've been rather entertaining...).

There's Noah in the back under the "Christ" sign. Wierd, I only had 4 kids in the pagent this year. Caleb is now too old for Sunday School, and Seth is "choosing" to be too old for Sunday School. Dog-gone it, they keep growing up... *sob*. Someday it'll sink in.

Noah's first piano recital

Noah started piano lessons at the beginning of the school year, so both he and Caleb took part in the Christmas piano recital.

I was sure proud of the little guy... well, he's eight, so I guess he's not so "little", but performing in front of a crowd can be a bit nerve-wracking at any age. In fact, the recitals were the main reason I quit playing piano when I was young (and ballet... and tap... and tumbling...). I dreaded performing in front of a crowd, so I applaud anyone brave enough to tackle the job without having a meltdown. So... Hurray for Noah. (yea, yea... and Caleb too, but it's kind of becoming "old hat" to him).

Let me test my memory here... I believe Noah played "Oh, Christmas Tree" and "Coventry Carols". He plunked his way through them (literally), then got up, nerves still in tact, and gave a bow. He made his momma proud!

Caleb played... well, when you get into songs by Bach and Mozart, they stop having normal names and are explained more like... "You know the really cool song from The Phantom of the Opera that is played on the organ when they are decending below the opera house? Yeah, that's the one. And you know that song on Disney's Fantasia when the little fairies are skating on the pond making different shapes in the ice? Yup, that's the other one." That last song was three songs in one, and I guess part of it was "The Waltz of the Sugar Plum Fairy". When his teacher picked out his songs for the recital, Caleb cringed (because of the name, of course. "fairy? really?"), but I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him practice it over... and over... and over. :)