Christmas

This year for Christmas we got to stay home. It was bittersweet. It was wonderful to be home and celebrate in our own house on Christmas day- usually we designate one day before or after Christmas for all of our "mom and dad" gifts. Then when we travel on Christmas day we leave a note for Santa to let him know where we are going to be on Christmas day. Santa brings his one present and fills a stocking. So, on Christmas morning the kids have only one present from Santa and a stocking with a few goodies. This year was nice because the kids got to open ALL of their presents, mom/dad and Santa, on Christmas morning. The kids were so excited. It was a lot of fun.

On Christmas Eve we opened our gifts from our brothers and sisters- earlier in the season we put each child's name in a bowl, then each of the kids draw a name and that is who they buy a gift for for Christmas. Gloria had Cami's name and bought her a Barbie (Cami loves Barbies more than anything). Grayson had Olivia's name and bought her a cute Fairy costume (Olivia loves to dress up). Cami had Gloria's name and bought her a mood watch (the face of the watch changes colors depending on her "mood") and Olivia had Grayson's name. Olivia bought a pellet gun for Grayson.... (let's just say he was super excited, too bad he is out of pellets, she did not buy any extra- but how's a 3 year old to know about buying extra pellets?). The kids loved their sibling gifts. They were also allowed to open one gift from mom and dad. Of course all the kids said "we know what this gift is.... pajama's!!! " and they were right!! They all got a pair of jammies and slippers. We read the nativity and had egg nog mixed with sprite and went to bed. The kids were excited about going to bed- Travis pulled me aside and asked if we should let the kids watch a movie before bed (he asked me this at 6:00 at night). I said "No Way!! This is the ONE NIGHT of the WHOLE YEAR that every one of these kids will be excited to go to sleep!!". Needless to say, the kids were in bed and asleep by 7:30. The best part of Christmas morning was the fact that the kids ALL SLEPT IN until 7:00am! I was shocked. I was expecting our usual 5:55am wake up call from Olivia, but she did not wake up. Gloria was the first one awake at 7:00am on the button. The rest of the kids soon followed, except Olivia. We debated waking her up and ended up deciding that we should. However, we soon discovered the reason she slept so long. She was sick. Poor girl. She had been so excited for Christmas and she was so sick. It was sad. She would open a present and then throw up in her bucket, open a present, throw up, and back and forth all morning long. She would open a present half heartedly. Cuddle for a few minutes and puke and then open another gift. Thankfully the bug was a short one and by that night she was fine and excited.

Gloria and Grayson both received POGO sticks from Santa..... They are so cool. The kids love them!! I don't have pictures because we were too busy videoing them and I forgot to snap a few shots. But they were a big hit and their "big present" this year. They have been spending a lot of time outside on our sports court practicing their bouncing. Grayson held the record for the first week with 315 jumps, but Gloria recently broke the record with 400 jumps. Travis does pretty well, but my record is only 35. It's a great workout. Travis and I were both sore for the first few days.

Cami got the Barbie from Santa that she asked for. She loves it and has been playing non-stop with her barbies. I also got her some Xia-Xia's thinking they would be a huge hit because she loves Littlest Pet Shop and Polly Pockets, but so far they have not been played with a lot.

Olivia's big gift was a pink horse. She thinks it's cute and sometimes she plays with it, but her favorite gift is a drill set that she got and the play dough.

I got Travis a wake surfer and I am sure that we will be posting a lot of pictures of it this Summer. It is really cool. I know he has wanted one for a long time. I saved my spare money for the past 4 months to get it for him. I know our family will love spending time on it this summer. It is basically a surf board for the wake behind our boat. You even throw the rope into the boat once you get up and just... surf.

Travis got me a trip to a fitness conference. I will go with my girl friends who are also fitness instructors. It should be a lot of fun.

Christmas was a lot of fun this year at home. We missed spending time with our family, but the timing did not work out with Travis's work.... maybe we will get to visit next year- who knows?