All I Want for Christmas...

This year we continued our tradition (since this was the second year in a row I am now calling it a tradition!) of having Santa's Elves make an early delivery to our house so the kids can have Christmas morning all together. We love getting to have Christmas Eve presents and this year Andrew was even lucky enough to have the whole day off so he didn't have to leave after breakfast! We tried to keep things simple and not do too much, but when you have a family of 6 even a small Christmas seems like a lot of stuff:/ More on the need to declutter later.
At church on Christmas Eve's Eve (or as my cousin's son call it "Christmas Adam"--how cute is that?!) Jonathan leaned over to me and said "Mom, I know what my Christmas wish is now." Ummm, too late kid! Luckily what he said would be the only thing in the whole world that would make him happy was a super squad game for the Wii. Something I just happened to know he would be getting so I could easily tell him if he was good it would probably come.

Prior to that conversation every time we would ask him what he wanted he would always come up with the most random stuff ever that I knew he didn't really want. This year for Jonathan I made him a pillowcase out of batman fabric, a fort kit (the bag out of the same fabric as the pillowcase...of course), the super squad game, and several other super hero related items--like his very own mini bat signal!

I'm pretty sure he was more than thrilled.

I love that our kids take turns and anxiously wait to see what the others have received. None of this run at the tree and attack the presents in our house!

Super hero undershirts are pretty much the coolest thing ever. Mainly because now no one else will know how long Jonathan has been wearing the same shirt...

Reagan was the happiest little girl all morning. She had the same Christmas wish list for about a month before Christmas. Dora house, Dora people, my little pony...as time went on and it got closer the list grew...strawberry shortcake, lala loopsey, brave the movie, and Cinderella the movie. Between extended family and us she almost got all her wishes;)

Luke and Adrian were a lot of fun for us to surprise this year. Neither of them had any clue as to what they were getting. Just the way I like it. We got Luke a telescope, a book on astronomy, a star gazing journal, and we are going to take him to omsi's planetarium. We thought this would be perfect for an aspiring astronaut. Someday he plans to be the first man to walk on Mars.
Adrian has always loved animals and last year fell into an obsession with birds. He received some binoculars, a book on bird species, a bird journal and a bird house to build. We are going to take him to the Audubon society in Portland for a 4 mile bird watching hike.
Excited doesn't even begin to describe how the boys felt about their gifts. We love the idea of giving things that they will actually use and that are educational in a sneaky way;)

In primary Jonathan made a present for Andrew. He drew a picture for him and said that his gift to his dad was that he would step on spiders for him. Sooooo cute!

Over dinner one night when Andrew was at work the boys decided on what they wanted to get their dad for Christmas. I didn't think that what they wanted to get him existed. Enter the internet. I was wrong. They were  thrilled beyond measure.

Andrew was not even faking this reaction to the gift of gifts: an R2D2 lunch box that lights up and makes noise. Now come on, what grown man doesn't need to have one of these?!

 

The kids get presents for each other every year to (they draw names) and Jonathan gave Reagan the Cinderella movie and a Cinderella doll. It was a Christmas miracle that he didn't tell her what it was before Christmas. I don't even know how many times I caught him just as he was about to tell her what it was.

Adrian found a Diary of a Wimpy Kid practical joke kit for Luke. So far I have been to smart to fall for any of them;)

 

I think my favorite moment was when Reagan hugged her Cinderella doll and made her duck face that means extreme happiness.

 

 

 

 

Courtesy of an amazing Goodwill find and some successful bids on ebay Reagan's wish for a Dora house and Dora people came true. When I first looked them up I almost choked at how much these things cost new. Seriously?! But, when there is a will there is a way.

I was beyond spoiled this year. My husband has told me since that I do so much for him and the rest of our family throughout the year that he has to make up for it at Christmas. I got what I asked for and much more. I am now the proud owner of a laminator. I may or may not have already had to buy more lamination...my kids think I am crazy and don't believe me when I say I am having a lamination party. What kind of party is that? I also have a really cool dish rack. I'm kind of a cleaning and organizing freak so I guess I'm not surprised that these things were a couple of my favorites. I also now have a pretty sweet black and decker hand held vacuum cleaner. My family rocks. The end.