Our Christmas 2007

Okay, I'm FINALLY getting around to posting about our Christmas! Yay! I know that you've all been waiting with baited breath. :) This is going to be super long (don't say I didn't warn you), but I wanted to journal it all.

Adam woke up really early on our Christmas morning, and we managed to hold him off until 6:30. When Mike and I got up and ready, and got the cameras ready, we woke up Grace, and walked out. Adam screamed and ran over! I was SO happy he was excited, because, he's not the super-excited type of kid. He's already been questioning Santa Clause a lot this year, and had NO desire to visit him or anything. But, he was excited, so maybe my weeks of saying, "Aren't you SO excited?" hundreds of times a day paid off. Or maybe he was just playing for me.

But, we opened the stockings first, and they were both thrilled. Santa FINALLY wised up in the stocking-buying business, taking extra bits of money all year long and buying clearanced items to fill the stockings, rather than her usual mid-December run and grab. Adam got a few card games, puzzles, a pair of sunglasses, and candy. Grace got lots of books, a puzzle, crayons, and candy in hers.


We moved onto the present that Santa left each of them: a baby and stroller for Grace and a remote control truck for Adam. Grace SQUEALED when she ripped open the package and immediately started loving on her baby's box (Santa might wise up AGAIN next year and remove all of the stupid, silver twist ties beforehand... wow!). Adam screamed and screamed when he opened up his remote control truck. He wanted to play with it right away, and again, maybe Santa should have read the instructions beforehand, because we found out that it had to be charged 8 HOURS before using it! He was a bit disappointed, but we charged it right away, and played with his games instead.



My mom sent Adam and Grace some money to buy Mike and me some presents (which they then "worked off" by helping her with the gingerbread houses in Phoenix). I got a scrapbook magazine and new paper cutter (mine disappeared in the move), and Mike got a watch and 2 Hot Wheels cars (wonder who selected the Hot Wheels cars for him....).

After presents, we ate THE WORLD'S YUMMIEST cinnamon rolls! They were SO beyond good. They would have been even better, though, had I not tripled the frosting. The recipe called for, I think, 3 oz. of cream cheese, but I had an 8 oz. package, so I thought, "Why not?" and tripled it. This would have been okay. It was smearing the entire tripled recipe ONTO the cinnamon rolls that was the problem. It made them WAY, WAY too rich! So, if you try the recipe (and you really have to), double it, don't triple. Man, oh, man... try it, though. Super easy. Super delish.


We played at the park with bubbles, and Adam's (partially) charged truck and ran errands that afternoon. All in all, it was a great Christmas... and it was just starting!



We drove down the next day to Phoenix. Katie, you must be the most patient person in the world to make that drive as often as you did! Maybe it's just that I haven't ventured more than 20 miles from our house in 7 months, but that was the longest drive ever. It didn't help that we had to stop SO often for potty breaks, or left a little later than planned and had to go through Laughlin.

We finally made it, though, and went to my parent's house to drop off a toolbox for them, before heading to the Wilkins. However, when we got there, they surprised us with snow! Doran and Danyel had driven up to Flagstaff and brought snow down for the kids to play in, since Adam was bummed we were missing the snow in Flagstaff. So sweet! And the kids had A BLAST! Thanks, guys!

We headed over to the Wilkins for dinner and to spend the night. The next morning we went to church with them, and spent the early afternoon visiting, before leaving so that I could take a 5-Generation picture with my family. I'm really glad that we got to do that... very neat.



That night was my mom's "Grammy Day!" My mom is so cute... she has her day every year, and we decorate gingerbread houses that she has made (with a HUGE stockpile of candy that she's been saving), and eat a "G" dinner: goulash, green salad, grapes, Goldfish crackers, and gummy bears. Isn't that fun? Adam keeps begging me to do it again... I think that he LOVES that he got candy for dinner. LOL. It was the first time EVER that my siblings and I were ALL together. Very neat. The gingerbread houses turned out WAY cute! We had a blast making them and visiting with everyone.

We spent the night at the Wilkins, and woke up the next morning to get ready for the Wilkins Christmas Party! It was SO fun! I hadn't realized how much I had missed all of Mike's family until we were there. I have the BEST in-laws in the world! They are all so much fun to be around! I also have the world's cutest nieces and nephews (it's a fact), and it was amazing how much everyone had grown. Adam loved playing with all of his cousins. Playing with everyone in the backyard was his favorite part of coming down to Phoenix. We had dinner, had the kids gift exchange, and did a White Elephant adult gift exchange. So fun! Thanks again, you guys, you have NO idea how great it was to come down for Christmas and see everyone!

We headed to Nano's (my grandma) house for Christmas Eve dinner and presents. She has lived in Mesa for a long time, and recently moved into her house in Phoenix. She redecorated it, and it looks AMAZING! I loved seeing what they had done to it. After dinner, we opened presents. Back at Thanksgiving, Adam and I pulled the wishbone together, and he wished for a box of Hot Wheels cars. He waited and waited. That night at Nano's, he received a basket, and it had a TON of Hot Wheels in it! That night he told me he was SO happy because his wish had come true... he got his Hot Wheels! So cute! Nano didn't even know that he made that wish, but she made it come true.

All of my siblings and I spent the night at my mom and dad's that night. The next morning, we woke up and opened presents and stockings. One of the things that Adam received was a toolbox from my dad. He loves taking things apart, so it was perfect. The day after we got back to Las Vegas, Adam woke me up by telling me that he had "fixed" our DVD player and knew what the problem was. I groaned to myself... because our DVD player WASN'T broken! I walked out to the living room, and found the DVD player in pieces! His diagnosis? There was a DVD in it! :) Oh, Adam. He put it back together, and it works, so he must be good! :)

We went to my Grandma's house that afternoon for HER Christmas party (we are so lucky to have so much family to celebrate with us... 4 Christmas celebrations!). After Christmas lunch and presents at her house, we went back to the Wilkins to say good-bye. The only thing that we didn't get to do was see Mike's Grandma Hansom. I was really sad that it didn't work out, but Mike called her to wish her a "Merry Christmas" and we will put her as our #1 priority when we visit again.

We headed back up to Las Vegas in the late afternoon. And I found out that I was wrong. The drive down to Phoenix was nothing compared to the drive up. Grace threw up 3 times, Adam complained, and from Kingman on, Grace SCREAMED the ENTIRE 2 hours. No joke. And she LITERALLY fell asleep as we turned into our apartment complex. I couldn't even make that up. It was crazy!

We had the most wonderfully, awesomely, best Christmas ever! If you actually made it through this horrendously long post, yay for you! If not, that's okay. I wanted to journal it for us. Thanks again to the Wilkins for having us and making it possible for us to come down. It was the BEST Christmas gift ever! You will never know how much it meant to see everyone. Thanks to my family for the snow, and gingerbread houses and presents and fun. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, too!