Christmas 2011

Are you ready?   Here we go.......

It's Christmas morning and naturally Santa did not disappoint {neither did Lola's hair}!  The kids were a little out of it seeing as how we had to wake them up a good 2 hours before their normal routine, but they promptly became wide eyed with excitement and wonder upon entering the family room.

With 2 princess dolls for Lola, a remote control quad for Tommy and a tool workbench for Max all their Christmas wishes were fulfilled.

It doesn't take much at this age to please them and for that we are grateful!  It won't be long before their wish lists will include much pricier items, so we are taking advantage of being able to spend less and simply enjoy the moments we share together instead.

We planned on meeting out in Phoenix to attend church with my Mom and all my siblings, so in order to make the 9:00 sacrament meeting we needed to hustle and get ready.  

Here I am wishing I was back in my warm comfortable bed on the way out to Phoenix.
You can see that Max was already taking a little snooze at 8:40 a.m.

After church we headed back to my Mom's house for 2nd Christmas.  She, naturally, spoiled us all rotten.  We ripped through our gifts then played til our fingers went numb.  She prepared her traditional Christmas morning brunch for all to enjoy and then a little lounging around until it was time for our next stop.

Then...

A back to Mesa we shall go.  Notice EVERYONE asleep.  Naps were definitely in order for this crew!

After naps, by all, we stopped by Grandpa Toms house to celebrate with him for a few moments and open the gifts he so generously still gives.  Fun Family T-Shirts for the kids and new G's and cash for the adults.  Like I said, he's super generous and we all adore him {as does most of the greater Mesa population}!

Then... yes, there's still more!  We head over to Tyler's family for 3rd Christmas.  The gifts get distributed and then we open in order so everyone can see the fun stuff we all get.

{yes, that is Lola picking her nose, awesome!}

Note: not all these gifts were mine, but most of them!  and Max was finally starting to get the hang of this gift thing, can you tell he was super excited!

The kids dive in and the gag gifts never disappoint!  My In-Laws gifted each family with a week in Oceanside, CA this summer!  Such a generous gift to give us a fun vacation with all the family at the same time.  We can't wait to go!!!!!!  Thanks Mom and Dad!

Thank you Kenney {er, Jill} for the fun new Mocs that I wanted from Nordstroms!

We then have a smorgeshxborg of food for dinner {ribs, tamales, soup, prime rib, etc.} with all the fun and laughter that follows.  I then start to make the trek BACK out to Phoenix for the Christmas celebration with my Mom's side of the family while Tyler and the boys stay to relax a bit.  So a 4th Christmas if you will.

It simply isn't Christmas for me without a Cream Puff {or 5}!  and my cute Grandparents, oh how I love them!  We hold the celebration at my Aunt Josephine's home up on Camelback Mountain, no big deal, you know.  We get to overlook the valley while opening gifts and eating yummy foods and desserts made by my Grandparents.  My Aunt is so generous and always buys gifts for all the children and has a little something for the adults as well.  This year she gifted each couple with movie money and a $100 bill, designated specifically for date night!  Sweet right?  It helped out so much in the week to follow, as we went on three different dates including our New Years Eve fun {Go HERE to see the recap}.  Every single penny of it went to a babysitter so it was nice to not have that come out of the budget!

Anyway, after a little visiting and picture taking we {lola, my niece's Gracie and Emma who decided to  come along and me} started to make the trip back into Mesa.  We stopped along the way at a house that was uber decorated for the Holiday.  We even got out and walked around to look at all the decor.  To say it was overdone would be a SERIOUS understatement!

So that was our day in a very large nutshell!

Lots of family, lots of presents, lots of driving and lots of great memories!  That's what you get when you come from both sides of multiple generations of Arizonans.  A lot of family to see and celebrate with!  We love it and wouldn't have it any other way.  Hope Santa and the Holidays were good to you too, what a wonderful time of year!