Brown Elephant

Following Christmas, we had some relatives come from Mexico to take their son to the MTC. They requested that we do a white elephant party since they had never done one and had seen all of our pictures on Facebook. Of course we weren't going to say no. Any reason to party is a good reason to me. 

We had tacos that were so good. 

I think I ate way more than I should have. My favorite was the Champorado. It's a thick atole based chocolate milk that is so delicious.

And then the gifts. It's always the best when the little kids get the most random items and they don't know how to react. 

 This picture...makes me laugh

 Like I mentioned, this was our cousin that had never played this game that was passing through before he went to the MTC. My mom wanted to rig the game so that he would "win" a hundred dollar bill. So after everyone drew their numbers, we still had about 8 gifts left over and I redrew everyone's number to see who would go away with the leftover gifts. The last gift was the whoopie cushion with the hundred dollar bill that He drew. He was so surprised and he never found out that we had set it up.

The traditional look-what-I-got-picture

 And the night wouldn't be complete without a group picture...

 And a silly group picture. 

Veigel Christmas

Last of our Christmas festivities is going to theVeigel house to celebrate. As usual, we all got spoiled...even the adults. Larry and Holly were very generous and we are so grateful to them. The boys were especially excited about their semi-automatic NERF guns.

The cousins also exchanged gifts. Every kid seemed to be pretty happy and thankful for what they got. For future reference of my own, here is who every one had. 

James- Andrew

Jackson - Aaron

Jude- Morgan

Sarah - Oakley

Aaron - Jackson

Avery - Paige

Aiden - Avery

Andrew - Sarah

Oakley - James

Paige - Oliver

Morgan - Jude

Oliver  - aiden

Like I said, The adults were spoiled...maybe even more than the kids. As usual the guys got some sort of tool item to add to the growing collection that Larry has been upholding over the years and we can't wait to use the other gifts they gave us up at Greys River this year. Thank you, thank you Larry and Holly. 

This poor girl was so sick and spent the afternoon in this spot. Being sick on Christmas is for the birds.

Following the gifts, the kids ran into the kitchen to assemble their treasures.

 And the adults chowed down on some delicious grub. 

 Sweet Em.

 Luke makes the best ham and cheese melts and he is nice enough to always make one for me and Amy even before he makes one for himself. Love that man. As usual, I ate way too much...Oye.

At the end of the night I was so thankful for another wonderful Christmas season. I got to spend it with the people that I love the most. We had delicious food, we got to think of the birth of our Savior and also enjoy the generosity of others through gifts. I am so thankful to be given such a great life where I can enjoy these blessings during this time of year. I pray that everyone had an uplifting Holiday season. Here's to many many more. Merry Christmas. 

Christmas Breakfast

We love going over to have breakfast with Sue every Christmas morning. We always head over there in our jammies and have such a delicious spread of breakfast foods. Usually we are only allowed to bring the chocolate milk or juice. 

And of course she is always so nice to get us all gifts. 

 She got Oliver the loudest  coolest robot toy.

 And she got all the ladies some fun little kitchen tools and gadgets. 

 Of course she always has crackers for us. We go around reading our jokes, showing off our toys and wearing our crowns. 

That Sue really is a good one. We are blessed to have her as our neighbor and good family friend.

Christmas Morning

I love the quiet of Christmas morning at our house. Oliver has always been such a good sleeper so we didn't have to worry about him waking us up super early...just yet. Actually the boys had to come get me out of bed. Luke put the fire on (the latest Netflix find), and we gathered around to open gifts. 

First up were the stockings. Oliver got so many fun things in his stocking this year like candy and toys, but I think the movies were his favorite.  

  Luke got ammo, candy gift cards, toys and a hat, but I think the movies were his favorite too.

 I also got treats and movies. 

Our stocking this year were new and we didn't realize how much bigger they were than our old ones. I thought I was being prepared by buying 4 last year. Who knew I'd need 5 for the future. Certainly not us.

 Up next were the gifts that Oliver got Mom and Dad. 

 As usual, I love the drawing paper wrapping paper and that Oliver wrote on it. 

 He got me the diaper bag that I wanted for the babies. 

LOVE it and him!

 Next up was Dad's gift. 

 Most Friday nights around here, we have Friday family fun night. Usually we will stay in and watch a movie complete with popcorn and treats. So Oliver got Luke a popcorn popper and popcorn kernals since Luke was cooking popcorn old school style and the specific smell of that made me sick. Of course he also got Luke a new blanket since Oliver stole the blanket he got him last year. 

 Luke loved it and Obviously loves Oliver.

 And then it was Oliver's turn to see what Santa brought him.

 Santa brought Oliver the rest of the Castle Legos to go along with the Castle Legos that Grandma Lily gave him. How did he know?

 He was pretty excited about it. 

I loved that we decided to go very simple and small with gifts this year. It's something we try to do every year and then in the end we find ourselves overspending for no good reason (although Luke did break the rules and get me an additional gift this year...a coat).

It was a very special morning with my family. Next year it going to be crazy with two additional children crawling all over the place. We'll call this Christmas the calm before the storm. 

Christmas Eve

I love Christmas eve. I love loading up the car with gifts for the family, driving out to Salt Lake, eating dinner together, watching movies, opening gifts and just being together. This year we did just that and it was wonderful. After going to see the lights we came home and had dinner. It was a late dinner which is how I like it and it's how we did Christmas dinner growing up. As usual, Christmas dinner was delicious. Following dinner we hung out for a little while. Luke was so excited to watch Jiminy Crickets Christmas with Ashlyn like he did last year. I think this was the thing that he was looking forward to the most because he was talking about it for weeks prior. Every time he saw Ashlyn, he would remind her that that's what he planned on doing on Christmas eve. It was really cute and deep down I was hoping that one of these babies would be a girl, being that he was so dang cute with Ash. 

In years past, we would gather around the tube and watch A Christmas Story as it played over and over again on the tube, but this year we decided to joing Luke and Ashlyn. I loved watching some of the cartoons that we grew up with, eating dessert and sitting in front of the fire. It was perfect and I also loved that no one seemed to be in too much of a hurry to open gifts. We were just enjoying the moment being together. Something about that was pretty magical to me. 

After the feature presentation, it was time to open gifts. The cousins usually just draw each other's names and we all get something for my mom and of course my mom goes overboard and spoils every one. 

Ashlyn was first. Oliver drew her name and got her two Barbie movies. She held onto them for quite a while that night and went around showing everyone. 

Spencer had Oliver and got him some Legos. Can't go wrong with Legos and a Veigel.

Ethan had Jack and got him an Angry Birds game. You can't tell by this picture, but he really liked it. 

 I'm not sure what Ethan got, but I do know that Kade had him. Kenzie had Kade and I'm not really sure what he got. Somewhere in the middle of the chaos, I stopped documenting. 

 Kenzie had Tate, but he had to stay away since he was sick with the flu. 

Ashlyn had Spencer and I'm not sure what he got but I think he liked these girl Leggings better.

And Tayten had Mekenzie and she got a bunch of nail polish.  

 Even though Baby A and Baby B weren't in the name drawing this year, they still got a gift from their Aunt Taleesha. 

There is so much I love about this picture. Oliver is always making my family laugh. In this picture I think he fell in a box...

 My mom loved the Calender we made her.

A lot. She was laugh so hard at some of the pictures I used. 

And Oliver loved the Lego Castle Grandma got him. 

 He was even excited for the gifts that he cousins got too, he just couldn't contain his excitement. 

 And they couldn't contain theirs.

 Hugs all around for such a wonderful Christmas Eve.