Christmas recap...

We had a fabulous Christmas this year. William has been living in Farmington since Thanksgiving and we all missed him a ton so to get him home on the evening of the 23rd was a treat. The kids and I were excited to get some days with him.

This is my very own Christmas tree. I have decorated it for myself for three years now. The first year it was a photo tree. Last year I added a few pink ornaments and this year I added a bunch more pink ornaments. Next year I plan to update the photo prnaments and add a few more pink ones I got after Xmas. The kids don't get to touch this tree. It should go in my craft room but instead I put it in our crowded living room where everyone who came over could see it. I think maybe next year I might upsize this thing. I am getting more and more pink ornaments. On Christmas Eve we had Grandma Payne and the Udall family over for dinner. I cooked a Ham and the Udalls brought salads and desserts and veggies. I made some potatoes and gravy and rolls too. So we had a yummy feast.

And this is the first time I made something in my Pampered Chef trifle bowl I bought months and months ago. I think this looked much better than it tasted. I used sugar free jello so it wasn't the greatest dessert. Good thing Nicole made the yummiest of all. Layered chocolate something. Mmmmm... I can't even think of it without salivating.

Then after that we had a new twist on our Nativity program. Last year didn't go so well with our kids dressing up. So this year I found a nativity left/right game and bought a bunch of the candy from Walmart that is $1 a box. You know all that movie candy? Anyway I wrapped each box and the kids passed the boxes as they listened to the story to hear which way to pass them. It was a great way to get our kids to listen. It worked! Yeah! Then the kids opened their Christmas jammies and got dressed for bed.It was actually an early to bed night for William and I. I had all our presents wrapped before the last minute. And there were no toys to assemble this year. Yeah for the kids asking for easy stuff. Here is what Santa brought Amy...

She has wanted Heelys for months. She loves to wear them in the house and since our floors are so durable I let her. We have wood in all the walkways and so she can skate all over the house without the carpet breaking her momentum. And Makenna bought a pair too. I got a wrong size really cheap online and so I let Makenna buy them from me. So the two of them are having a blast with them.

Mason's favorite gift was his Iron Man playset he asked Santa for. It is awesome. The figure is about 10 to 12 inches tall and he talks. He has all kinds of parts to go with him and Mason is in heaven.

Emily got a Baby Alive that really pees and poops in her diaper or on the toilet. It is the coolest thing. I played with it for a while with Emily cause I was amazed at how much technology is changing. Remember the dolly that you could squeeze her bottle into her mouth and then when you tipped her up the water just dripped out the bottom? Not this thing, it is totally high tech. She actually tells you she has to go potty before she does it and she gives you time to take her diaper off and sit her on her potty before she wets. It is wild. Thanks to Brooke for posting on her blog about her Amazon deals. I never would have paid full price for a doll like this. I think it retails for about 50 buck and I paid half that. The cool thing is that Emily had no clue what to ask Santa for. I told her Santa would just bring her something he thought she would love. She did love it!

Amy found the pickle this year. The prize was a giant box of Sweettarts which she has been rationing and still has them.

Liberty's favorite toy has been her puppy she got at the Udall family's Santa Claus breakfast. She sat on Santa's lap and asked him for a puppy and he handed her a present. When she opened it she was so excited to see the same puppy she asked for. She loved it so much she kept kissing it.

Speaking of the Santa breakfast at the Udalls... I got some cute pictures of Amy and Emily with Santa this year.

I was taking a picture and told Amy to look at me and smile. Santa, who was Jared Udall, told her to say "I love Cole Udall". Amy went scarlet red and started to beat Santa up. Here are two pictures I caught of it.

William must have seen my post on my blog about the Doghouse. I got these gorgeous white gold and diamond earrings. I have no idea what made him buy them because he is always talking about saving money but I have to say how impressed I am that he picked out jewelry that I love this much. They are so much my taste. I even suggested that he look for a matching necklace for Valentines or our Anniversary if our house sells by then. I hope he knows how much I love them. Thanks Honey!

Another cute picture I don't think I ever posted was this adorable one of Liberty kissing Minnie's nose. She liked Minnie better than Santa at the Tresco Tots (speech therapy) Christmas party.
Ok and finally the last picture to post is Emily's broken arm. It is finally feeling a lot better. But here it is almost three weeks later and she still has a pretty ugly bruise on her arm. Believe me when I say that this looks much, much betterthan it used to look.