Christmas Eve & Christmas Morning

We spent Christmas Eve at the Hale's with Pookie and Papa and then headed over to the extended Hale Christmas party.  We did a nativity, exchanged cousin gifts, and got some special Santa figurines from Pookie & Papa.  My parents stopped by right before the kids went to bed to read them "The Night Before Christmas" but 3/4 the way through the book, Papa was interrupted by Santa's sleigh bells right outside, so the kids bolted straight to their beds.  Rachel was actually scared because she thought if she was still awake, she might not get anything, so she got a little teary.  We didn't hear one more peep from Andrew!  Kendall has been so enthusiastic about everything having to do with Santa, so it has been super fun!

Christmas Eve night consisted of Andrew waking me up almost ever hour out of sheer excitement.  He completely disregarded the sheet we hung in the hall which was supposed to keep him in his room.  He was up for the day at 5am, so we handed him the iPad and told him to wait in his room until 7am.  Rachel was up around 6:30a and found Andrew (she had slept upstairs with the kids).  We had to wake up Kendall to open presents at 7:15a.

Santa brought Rachel an American Girl doll, Andrew got some volcano scientist lego sets, and Kendall got a doll-size play ice cream truck.  We had a magical morning opening gifts and then headed to church at 9am (Brandon was so kind and had woken up at 5:30a to set up chairs for his teachers quorum so they didn't have to).  We spent time at both grandma's house, so we didn't get much time at home.  The day after Christmas, they pretty much entertained themselves with their new toys the whole day while Brandon and I got some projects done.

Dad's Christmas loot!

Mom's loot + a brand new desk for the downstairs office