Our Christmas

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL Christmas. Our Christmas was WONDERFUL!! And we continue the celebration all through until the new year (why should it only be celebrated one day??)!

We opened gifts from Grandmom and Granddad via web cam (so they could see all the oohhhhs and aaahhhhs). :) Then we continued on and had breakfast as well as our Christmas traditions.

Then we opened the rest of the gifts. JJ was so funny! He kept wanting to open every gift, not understanding that we take turns and not all the gifts are his. :) AA was great as with each new DVD that was opened, her eyes got bigger and brighter and she wanted to watch THAT one instead. :) LOL!!! EE loved the bead kit she got. She immediately went to work making a necklace for herself and a matching one for her doll. MM loved her snowman necklace. She opened it up and made it ALL BY HERSELF! She looked at the instructions and just went for it. She only needed help getting the LAST i bell on because by then, the ribbon was a little frayed and she could not thread it. Then she needed me to tie it so she could wear it. It was PERFECT! I am SO PROUD of her!!!

The oohhhhs and ahhhhs could not stop when we opened the LEGO Indiana Jones PSP2 game!!! WOWZERS!

Then we got the BEST GIFT EVER!!! My BIL married a woman who LOVES learning and knowledge. I must admit that she supports me in homeschooling more than other family members do. And the gift she sent this year will be hard to top!! :) (Kinda like when you go on a family vacation to Disneyland - you just can't do better than that!) No pressure for her though! LOL!! Honestly though, we have always loved her gifts, but this year was AWESOME!

EVERY gift came from a scientist or naturalist. From Jane Goodal we got a nature notebook (this was one of my fav gifts from her). We got gifts from Tesla and Carver. It was AWESOME! I think my other favorite was the carnivore eating plant kit!!! I have been wanting to buy one for the girls for about a year now!!!! We have bug catching kits (oh the girls cannot WAIT to use this, they LOVE bugs), sun printing kits (the girls will LOVE this!!!) and oh so much more! I am stocked up and STOKED about homeschooling this coming summer!!! (Yes, we homeschool year round, but that allows us to vacation when all the other kids are in school, rates are cheaper and things are not nearly as crowded! It also allows us to take off to be with family or when family comes to visit. It really is nice.)

We had another $15 dollar dinner but this time it cost only about $8 and it was WONDERFUL!!! Roasted organic chicken, sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping (I know, but it is a tradition for Brian), homemade apple fritters (combining Hanukah this year), fried okra, homemade stuffing and cranberry sauce.

The movie of choice for the evening was WALL-E, as this was one that the whole family could watch.

Then to bed, to snuggle under the covers. Off to sleepyland with smiles on the faces of everyone. It was a wonderful day! No rushing. Just simple and sweet. WONDERFUL!