Christmas

What an awesome, classic Christmas morning!  The kids did us the favor of sleeping in until 7:30, and then we came down to ...

Owen's first Christmas, all over again!  He doesn't remember last year, so it was all new and exciting. I only took a few pictures though, this is literally all of them!

 Whit's favorite thing- her mini primary songbook!  She keeps looking through it and trying to read the songs.

 YES! CHOCOLATE!

 Owen's own little Book of Mormon, "little tiny scriptures" as he calls it, which he frequently opens and "reads" things like "Jesus said...Go to the Temple!" or "Jesus said... no no no!" silly boy.

 cousin present- stuffed airplane that talks from Jenna!

Beanie Boo cat from Grammy!

 very cool flashlight from Great-Grandmom and Grandad!

 All of this and more!!  It was really cute, Owen was so excited about EACH piece of candy he took out of his stocking, and with each present he opened had to open the box and take out the toy and play with it, missing a couple of his present turns while he did so.  Whitney and Katelyn had so much fun, and it was so fun for Eric and I to watch them and LISTEN to them chatter away.  They loved all their presents and they really loved their presents from each other and were so excited to give Eric and I and Owen gifts.  Hopefully we can keep emphasizing the GIVING part of Christmas!  

It is so fun being a parent of little kids on Christmas, I really didn't even anticipate my gifts much, but I got really thoughtful and wonderful presents from everyone.  The most surprising was from Eric- we gave ourselves a new fridge for Christmas, so I wasn't expecting anything from him, but he got me these really nice running gloves that are not only super warm, they have little touch pads on the fingers so I can use my phone (I have a sweet running app) while running, and they have grippy stuff so I won't drop my phone either. :)  He's so awesome, what a perfect present.

On Christmas afternoon we went up to the Murrays for dinner and more presents!  Thankfully Mary took these pictures, I am so bad at remembering to take pictures when we go up there!

 Brad got these adorable Panda hats for the girls in China, so cute!  They've been wearing them to school, and Whitney said her teacher was leading her class into their room and the teacher said "okay, time to start, kids and panda!" Which of course delighted Whitney!  (She has the best teacher ever!)

And Owen and Cleo got panda slippers, so cute!  Along with many other wonderful gifts.  Cleo is a cutie and I'm excited for her and Owen to be friends. :)

 And late Christmas night the girls' favorite people flew in- Elizabeth and KJ!  Who then proved their awesomeness by spending HOURS the next morning helping the girls build a giant Lego house!  They are so much fun.

and to finish off a really great year, Eric and I went to the Anniversary Inn for our 10th wedding anniversary!  We got a jungle room and it was so fun to sleep in a treehouse and have a waterfall/hot tub. :)

And now the year is over!!  On to another exciting one!!