Christmas 2014

I hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas!  Other than a little smoke alarm going off while I cooked breakfast (don't ask) our day was joyful and peaceful and just... just right.
Ok, ok, I know you are going to ask.  I normally make cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  This year I decided to make monkey bread instead.  It's essentially the same thing but I didn't have to roll the  dough out on my counters.  I have next to no counter space so I thought monkey bread was a good idea.  I thought wrong.  The dish I baked the bread in wasn't deep enough (I don't have a bundt pan) and butter and sugar bubbled out over the top and made a MESS on the bottom of the oven.  Our oven is the cheapest thing in the existance of ovens, so smoke was pouring out of every nook and cranny.  No worries though, there wasn't a single flame.  I was prepared if there was.  I had just bought a 1 ( or 2?) pound box of baking soda the day before.  


  The kids actually went to bed pretty easily on Christmas Eve.  Minus Keturah.  Girl party hardied till almost midnight.  I have no idea what that was about because she totally had no idea what was to come on Christmas morning.

The kids woke up early, but did a pretty good job keeping quiet until about 5:30.  That is WAY better than last year when they started talking at 2:30.  Way better.

 Keturah wasn't too happy about waking up.  As a matter of fact she was pretty upset. She was the first one to see presents under the tree though and that dried her tears fast.  She went from sobs to "ooh wook!  pesents!" in 2 seconds flat. 

 One last picture before they were allowed to see what was under the tree.  It was dark in the house so I used the flash rather than messing with the settings on the camera.  Adaiah  is blinded by the flash here.  :)

 Hannah made here way around the corner first. 

 Joseph was in a hurry too.

Nehemiah was the last to make it in but his face was adorable. 

 The excitement!  I LOVE Christmas morning. 

Keturah was starting to wake up now.  The presents were enough to get a smile out of her. 

We hopped on Skype and had an online Christmas with my mom.  We were SO close to being able to go to PA this year for Christmas but it just didn't quite work out.  Hopefully next year.  Anyway, we settled down with the laptop on the couch and the kids on the floor and started opening presents.  I've learned that everyone does this part different.  Some people open one person at a time.  For example,  Joseph would open all of  presents and then it would be Nehemiah's turn to open all of his, etc...  Some people open all at the same time and just go hog wild, paper flying, giggles and squeals, and chaos.  We take turns opening one gift at a time starting with the youngest and working up to the oldest, occasionally throwing in a gift for Mommy and Daddy along the way.  We don't open stockings until the end. 

That said, the pictures below are out of order.  :)

 Keturah had some large presents (she got a sand table and a sliding board) but this is the biggest one that she would open.  The bigger ones seemed to intimidate her and she wouldn't touch em.  Not to worry, there were many volunteers to get the job done.  :)

So after opening gifts our day was spent playing.

 Lego assembly.

The kids went from new toy to new toy.  They played games, read books, and played with dolls.  Roger assembled things for the kids and played with his favorite gift - a new cell phone.  I tried to find the floor under all of the wrapping paper and boxes.  I finally succeeded some time after dinner.  I also played with my new tri-pod. Nothing was staying still long enough for me to really use it though.  Mostly I just hung out and played with whatever kiddo wanted me to play with them.  :)

Amazing day.