Christmas

This was our first Christmas with just our little family in our own house. We had a wonderful time and it was fun to have our own traditions. We had a big Christmas Eve dinner with ham, twice baked potatoes, homemade rolls and the works. Everyone dressed up in their nice clothes and we ate on my Grandma Pratt's beautiful china. After dinner we read the Christmas Story in the scriptures and then watched the church movie, "Joy to the World" about Christ's birth. We wanted to make sure the kids really knew and understood the importance of Christmas.

Travis and I both had the same tradition growing up of opening one present under the tree on Christmas Eve, the present was always new pajamas. When it was time to open up the presents, Baylee had finally realized after 8 years that she always gets new jammies Christmas Eve. Jake was not as thrilled, I think he was hoping for a toy. Everyone put on their new jammies, including Trav and I, and then it was time to write a note to Santa, get his plate of cookies ready and sprinkle the reindeer food outside. The kids were very ready for bed and off they went, even though it took Jake and Baylee a long time to fall asleep. Baylee was very curious and asked so many questions about Santa, I hope she keeps on believing.

Christmas morning, the kids woke us up after 7:30am to see what Santa had left them. I always love seeing their faces when they notice all of the cookies are gone from Santa's plate, they see the note he left for them and their stockings are stuffed with goodies. When they run over to the tree and see all of the presents under the tree, their reactions are priceless. After we opened all of the presents, we had a yummy breakfast of strawberry waffles, sausage, bacon and orange juice. The tradition in Travis' family is to have strawberry waffles, but Travis and I were the only ones to put strawberries on our waffles. Christmas morning breakfast in my family was always homemade scones, we will probably try both next year to see what the kids really prefer.

Baylee got a "lime green" ipod. (Her favorite color.)

Sydney got a pink big girl bike.

Jake got a Nintendo DS (just what he always wanted).

The kids helped make Travis a book about being "THE BEST DAD"!

Christmas Day we relaxed, played with all of the fun new toys and then went to see the movie, "Bedtime Stories". We had homemade potato soup and rolls for dinner and watched movies by the fire. I loved every minute of it. I can not wait until next year.