Walton Christmas–Christmas Morning
I just love looking through all these pictures (some from my siblings). It was so much fun to be all together for Christmas this year. My kids just love being with their cousins. Lots of excitement at 7:30am on Christmas morning. We met up in the loft between the bedrooms and took pictures of excited kids while everyone gathered. Love these cute boys…
Stockings for my six. Katie’s Santa Present was the grey cheetah blanket and Megan’s was a Friends Lego Set. Emily’s was a cozy fur circle chair and Santa gave the three boys a Wii U.
Luke thrilled with Pokémon cards in his stocking, Katie cuddled up with a new scarf and cozy blanket. Ryan always changes immediately into whatever new item of clothing he gets so here he is putting on some new socks. And Luke and Matt giving Ryan hugs when they saw the Wii U. Happy Kids.
Santa spoiled me with a fancy Chinese Checkers Game for our game table downstairs, some new perfume and my favorite Eucalyptus Spearmint Bubble Bath.
Megan and her Friends Lego and her GoofBallz owl and the hair flower from her stocking.
James got a fancy flying thing and my boys were pretty eager to try it…
After a little while we stopped and Chris made Christmas breakfast…
Luke and Matt pretty excited about their new Avengers for the Disney Infinity…
Selection books to Katie from Ryan…
Crowding around Mike for him to open their handmade Christmas cards… Boy, do these kids love their Uncle Mike.
Chris gets BYU stuff for Christmas. Always. This year a BYU mug from Megan.
And another BYU shirt… I think Amy guessed that it might be something BYU and thought it was funny that she was right. Chris is confused. He thinks no amount of BYU stuff is too much.
Three girls got Taylor Swift Concert tickets. Exciting!! It’s a long time away but fun to be excited about!
Our Big Present to the Kids…
A big present we gave to the kids this year was a surprise trip to Hawaii. In celebration of Chris getting out of the army and before he started his new job we planned to take the kids out of school for four days and head to Kauai with our good friends, the Richins. Each of the kids unwrapped a box that had a new bathing suit (sunglasses for Katie) and each had a letter of the word Hawaii. They had no idea. It was my niece, Annie who first put it together but kept it quiet so they could figure it out. Finally they got it, and helped the boys get into the right place. Amy snapped the picture of them from the balcony, which I love. Very exciting!
Brian, Dad and Mom with Dad’s new IMAX movies… Amy and Chris… Luke and Matt with their new Storm trooper PJ’s and cute Annie ready to open a present.
My favorite present this year came from my two brothers, Mike and Brian, who spent countless hours publishing a Family Timelines book with collections of timelines and photos from the Walton, Harding, Polley, and Bunker lines. It was a very special time opening it up. My Dad read aloud the message they wrote to all of us…
“Dear Family, Sometimes family history is hard to visualize, which is why it was always fun to pull out Dad’s hand-drawn timeline to better understand the people, places and events of our ancestors. We wanted to expand on this idea and create a book that included photos, stories, and timelines for even more of our ancestors. As we’ve worked to create this book we’ve felt a stronger connection to those who have gone on before us and we know that it is the Spirit of Elijah working within our hearts. Our hope is that as you use this book with your families you too will feel this same connection. We know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live. We know He has a plan for our family. We have experienced what the scriptures refer to as turning of hearts of the children to the hearts of the fathers, and we hope that this book will allow you to have the same experience. Love Mike and Brian”
I think all of us were emotional at this point but I just couldn’t hold it together. What a neat gift. We paused all the gift-giving to look through and talk about the process they went through to put it together. Thank you Mike and Brian!!
Chris thought to take the camera up to the loft and take a picture from above. These might be my favorite from the morning. I just love all the wrapping paper and chaos of the morning. It just tells such a great detailed story.
Luke gets so excited for his presents that everyone around him gets excited too. Enough Wii games to keep them all busy on Saturdays.
American Girl puppies from Ryan
A Finnick poster for Emily and a Bubble Wrap Wedding Day Count Down from Carly to Mike.
Sarah surprised Dan with a Phantom 2. So exciting!! His pictures and videos will be taken to ‘a whole new level’!
Matt gave Ryan a new Batman shirt which was a big hit.
A few of Amy’s shots…
It was a great day. After present opening ended around noon, the girls started an American Girl movie, the boys went to set up the Wii U, people started playing Splendor (Ryan gave to Chris) and I went and took a nap. Dan took his new Drone out for a spin, then more games and Christmas dinner leftovers. Christmas night Chris and I watched Maleficent with the kids and then we played games till 2:00am. So fun to be together.