Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, after breakfast, Daddy decided the kids needed to each open one of their presents (he would have let them open all of them if he would have had his way).  They were super excited!

Later in the day, we went to Jeremy and Donna's house for dinner, and to celebrate Christmas with my family.  Of course, there was lots and lots of food....

After dinner, we relaxed and visited for a while.  Okay, let me rephrase that....  Some of us relaxed, the kids decided to use Uncle Jeremy as a jungle gym and had a grand ole' time!

Jeremy had a sore back, but was being such a great sport and was still letting the kids walk all over him.  At one point, Talon was getting a bit wild, so Jeremy said, "Hey, you gotta be careful because my back hurts."  Talon, hardly missing a breath, asked, "Then can we stomp on your head?".

Even Nolan got in on the action.

Then it was time to open gifts, but we had to get some pictures of the kids in front of the tree.  The older two were great.  We just had to remind them that if they smiled good they got to open presents.  Nolan on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with it.  He kept screaming and crawling out of the picture.  Big surprise!  You can tell by Talon and Kaitlyn's expressions in this picture that they are a bit put out by their little brother.  They aren't too happy that he is standing in the way of opening presents! We gave him his sippy cup and finally got him to sit in one place for a couple of seconds.

Then, as tradition goes, Uncle Jeremy and Talon played Santa and passed out all the gifts.

Kaitlyn decided she wanted to help.

As usual, everyone went way overboard, and spoiled the kids!

Amongst the many fabulous gifts, Talon and Kaitlyn each got a Little Tikes car with a trailer.  I told all my family to take it easy this year, to not spend a bunch of money, and just get my kids something small.  Hmmmm.  I wouldn't exactly call these inexpensive or small.  The kids were so excited!

Then came the not-so-small project of assembling the cars.  Nolan thought he was helping, I'm sure!

Talon, lending Uncle Justin his expert advice.

I had fun making all kinds of candy this year.  Next year, I don't think I'll make it in quite the mass quantity that I did, though!

So thoroughly enjoyed spending time with my family.  Thanks to everyone for making the evening so special, and for helping create such wonderful memories!