Christmas Day
After the phone call alerting us that the kids were awake and ready, Chris went down and took each one upstairs while covering their eyes and jokingly taking them right in the living room or leaning them over the balcony with their eyes closed. He likes to teach them.
When everyone was ready we headed downstairs to the living room.
Santa Presents and Stockings
Coming down to the tree on Christmas morning. Santa presents and full stockings sitting on the couch and a few fun cereals by the tree. You can’t see it well, but we had several hours of snowfall on Christmas Eve, so we really woke up to a white Christmas with blue skies.
Fun to see how excited the boys were to discover their huge SPEED Gravitrax Expansion sitting out for them. They checked out their stockings… chocolate milk powder, chocolate and candy, toothbrushes, tooth paste, deodorant and cologne… and then immediately started to unpack their Gravitrax and start building something on the table.
At one point during the Christmas season I heard Megan say… “If all of my Christmas presents came from ULTA I would be so happy.” She got some MARIO BADESCU skin care, and two other little make up bags full of samples and things.
In her stocking she found a cute ‘Cup of Cheer’ mug with ULTA lotions, a white mini-bowl from Anthropologie for jewelry, a $15 Target gift card, dry shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste, an M&M candy cane, chocolates, a razor, an eyebrow liner and PERFUME. Happy girl.
Emily got a crockpot and some random ingredients for easy college crockpot meals. In her stocking she found a white mini-bowl from Anthropologie for jewelry, a $15 Target gift card, dry shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste, an M&M candy cane, chocolates, a razor, an eyebrow liner.
Katie got a nutribullet and some ingredients to set her up for so much SALSA! She’s been wanting a bullet for protein shakes but we gave her a bigger blender so she could make salsa too. In her stocking she found a white mini-bowl from Anthropologie for jewelry, a $15 Target gift card, dry shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste, an M&M candy cane, chocolates, a razor, an eyebrow liner and a cute ‘K’ necklace from Anthropologie.
Christmas Breakfast
Dad got started on Christmas breakfast while we set the table and made grape juice.
Opening Presents from Each Other
Gravitrax Expansion packs from G&G Walton to Matthew (and another one to Luke), Don’t Miss This book and a $25 gift card to Madewell (for jeans!) from Katie and Emily, and a Quiksilver shirt from Mom and Dad to Luke — which he immediately put on.
The North Face sweatshirt for Megan was a hit. She wore it the rest of the day (and the rest of the week!) and Dad was so happy about his new STANCE socks. He loves them. Since he got socks in his stocking and now his first present was also socks he joked about having a Christmas of just SOCKS. It was especially funny because Megan went and picked out her present for Dad…
BYU Stance socks specifically found and ordered from eBay. Just socks for Christmas and still a very happy Dad.
A Nike lanyard and a $10.00 giftcard to Dick’s from Katie to Megan.
Two new cookbooks for me! I’m excited about them. I hope I use them!!
I don’t remember what was so funny! Darling Emily with a new tote bag — which she ended up exchanging for dark green!
Chris planned out a fun weekend in Denver for just the two of us. Love this kind of a thoughtful gift. Can’t wait!
A new Cubs hat for a very excited Matthew, Golf Balls to Dad from Luke and Matt, and a three barrel curling iron for Megan.
Some very favorite pens from Luke to Megan.
Love the pictures of Luke literally grabbing the paper out of Matt’s hand when he finally understand what the present was:
PARKOUR LESSONS for Luke and Matt every Friday Night from 5:50 - 6:30 at ALTITUDE NINJA GYM.
And… I suggested it to Luke’s friends’ mom and so Isaac and Everett also got in to the same class. SO EXCITING!
She had no idea what this present was. Everyone kept calling it the telescope. ‘Can Megan just open up the telescope already?’ Turns out it isn’t a telescope. It’s a grey hanging chair for the corner of her room! And a pink sweatshirt for Katie. It’s so cute but we needed a different size and couldn’t find it so she ended up with a cream one. Love these girls.
An APPLE WATCH for Katie! She’s been wanting one for a LONG time. Happy girl. I love the pic of Emily… I’m sure she’s thinking… ‘oh, that’s great for you, Katie!’ Little does she know she’ll get one for her birthday in just three days!
New cleats for Megan!! One of the main things she was hoping for this Christmas!
I gave Chris a new golf bag for Christmas!! He was pretty surprised and immediately noted that this brand was top notch. I had Jared, Doug and Brian helping me out and it worked out great! Cute Katie and Luke. Luke gave Katie a cute clear and golf bathroom organizer and Katie gave Luke a grey t-shirt.
Megan and Dad got me this adorable MAGNOLIA board. Apparently I pointed it out to Megan while we were there a couple weeks ago and she texted the idea to Dad. Love them for doing that. I love it! Matthew found the Mickey Mug in William Sonoma and got it for me… and Dad gave me an adorable black Kate Spade purse. So fun!
Five Kingdom Books from Emily and Katie to Matt.
Megan was excited to give Emily her present. Personal joke quotes on the card, a few hair clips and then… a HARRY STYLES magazine, which she LOVED!
Emily immediately reached for her present to Megan. Equally excited. Candy, gum and car fresheners (that ended up smelling like ‘man’ and she just couldn’t handle it) and LED lights for the inside of her car. So fun. She was pretty excited!
MARVEL Splendor to Matthew from Luke and Mom and Dad… and a new BYU tie, chocolate covered cinnamon bears and golf balls from G&G Walton to Chris.
I love these series of pictures as they opened up TICKETS TO HAMILTON. Luke processed it first. Then Matt and Megan. Hamilton is coming to Denver in March and we got $60 tickets the day that tickets went on sale. It’s going to be so fun!!
Below, Emily’s North Face Sweatshirt with no hood. She loves it! Matthew’s BYU basketball! Emily’s yoga ball from Luke and a cute green pillow for Megan’s room!
A new game from Emily to Luke that she found at the BYU bookstore. The Quest for El Dorado. We love it! So fun.
I don’t have a picture of the kids opening it but at some point, Megan Luke and Matthew opened a box with hints to look in the tree. There were 14 small square white boxes — each with a Clue to a present. In random order they opened up these clues:
Spring Break - Monday, March 21st - Saturday, March 26th
A picture of the Mexico Flag
A 5 star Resort… Iberostar Paraiso Maya
We are going with the Jacksons
We are going with the Richins
We are going with the Hales
We are going with the Campbells
We are going with the Wyeths
and then several boxes filled with pictures of pools and waterslides.
It’s going to be a great trip! Each of these families gifted the trip to their kids for Christmas. So sad that Dad won’t be able to go, but so excited to be vacationing with so many friends. : )
The last present of the day and Luke was overly enthusiastic and Matt just looked SHOOK. It was so funny. He just kept on looking over at me like “What? How? How did you know about this?” He forgot he even wanted it and hadn’t asked about it at all. It was a good surprise to end with. Seriously, his face just makes me crack up.
Megan’s presents: A hanging chair, soccer slides, soccer shinguards, soccer cleats, a new pillow, a green pillow, skin care, a coloring book, cool pens, a muscle roller, North Face sweatshirt and more.
A few of my presents: pinky/red bowls from Anthropologie from my mom, a purse and wallet, cookbooks, Magnolia board, Rifle Paper Company planner, onion chopper, soap scrubber, Mickey cup, weekend away, Madewell certificate and Don’t Miss This devotional. Lots of thoughtful presents.
Luke’s presents… Mariokart live, four new shirts, a 5 year question a day journal, Gravitrax set, Parkour classes, Garage Builder Switch game, Mexico vacation and El Dorado game.
Emily’s things: a crockpot, workout leggings and top, blue Anthropologie bowls, a book, Pyrek dishes from G&G Walton, Lulu Lemon fanny pack (exchanged for the black one), a yoga ball, a Harry Styles magazine and a teeth whitening session.
Katie’s presents: a nutribullet, a Northface sweatshirt (exchanged for a cream one), pink and white bowls from Target, pink bowls from Anthropolgie, workout leggings and a top, a Lulu Lemon fanny pack (exchanged for a black one), a make up bag, an Apple Watch and pillows and blankets for her room (We exchanged these a few different ones at Target).
Dads things: SOCKS, fuzzy crocs for work, two new shirts, black ABC joggers from LuLu Lemon (which he loves) a BYU tie, golf balls and a golf bag, a jump rope from Katie and another BYU puzzle from Emily.
We slowly opened presents until about 1:00.
Relaxed and had a short nap.
Ate Christmas dinner leftovers about 3:00pm.
Watched two Wheel of Time episodes.
Chris, Em, Megan and Matt played Marvel Spendor.
I talked to my parents and then Whitney.
Chris Face-timed with his family.
Lots of cleaning and organizing.
Emily suggested we watch tick, tick, Boom! We watched it on VidAngel and we really enjoyed it. We’re on an ‘Andrew’ kick and he did a great job. We loved the music too!
And worked on the Florida puzzle. Love it since it’s a one-movie kind of puzzle.
It was a great Christmas day!