Christmas Day 2010

Anticipation was running high at our house this year. Ethan was super-hyper (for him) all week long. He kept saying that he was so excited he felt like he was going to explode. Luckily he didn't. I first started hearing him stirring at around 6 in the morning. At 6:30 I showed some mercy and told Ethan that he could get up and get ready for the day. He then came into our room to kill some time hoping that his brothers would wake up. Bradon woke up at about 7 and we let him wake Tanner up at 7:30. When he went to tell Tanner that Santa had come during the night Tanner responded by saying "What time is it?" in his whiny voice. He's never too happy about being woken up.

Below is a picture of the Christmas tree after Santa had visited. I miss having the Christmas tree in the living room. It's so nice to have something bright and happy during this dark time of year. I still have the candles in the window because I just can't bring myself to get rid of their warm glow right now.

Here comes the crew down the stairs. They were very excited by what they saw.

Stockings and Santa bags are always the first thing that gets checked out every year. The stockings always include lots of yummy candy to get sick on throughout the day.

I think Santa treated the boys very nicely this year.

Bradon got a nice fish color puzzle that he is very proud to have already mastered. All the boys got a book. We love books at our house and Tanner and Ethan each got a beautiful Usborne book. Tanner got "Illustrated Animal Stories" and Ethan got "Illustrated Stories for Boys." Bradon got a Curious George book based on the PBS cartoon. He is absolutely in love with the book (particularly the story about mini-golf) and we've read the same stories every day since Christmas and he's not bored of them.

Ethan got the maze game Perplexus which has been a huge hit. It's addicting and he carries it around the house trying to master it, usually while listening to a book on his new MP3 player.

We also got lots of games. Ethan got Lego Harry Potter and Qwirkle. Brian got Forbidden Island and Dominion. I got Scotland Yard which is a fun game for a group of 4 or more. Tanner got a Sandwich Stacking game. We've had a lot of fun playing games around our house since Christmas.

I got two beautiful books about the artwork of Carl Bloch. If you haven't been to the Carl Bloch exhibit down at the BYU Museum of Art you need to make a special trip down to see it. It's amazing to see some of his work in person and it reminds me of his beautiful paintings in the Fredericksborg Castle in Hilleroed, Denmark. It's been interesting to learn more about Carl Bloch and his artwork through reading these books.

The boys all got their own MP3 players this year and they have been a hit. Bradon got the Fisher Price iXL which allows you to put your own music and pictures on it as well as games. He loves his music and has really enjoyed having a portable unit to take his music around the house.

Ethan also received a magic kit and he and Tanner have been learning a few basic tricks to mesmerize their audience. They have one trick where they make candy disappear in a box. Sometimes Bradon brings the box to me expecting me to get some candy out of it for him.

Ethan was especially excited about his new scripture set. We were planning on buying him scriptures when he got baptized this year, but he's been really diligent about reading the scriptures on his own so we decided to nourish his interest by purchasing him his own set. He actually reads a lot better than some of the youth I have taught and he's getting pretty quick at looking up references and knowing which book he can find certain references in. He's really growing up.

Tanner got a young scientist kit and he has enjoyed doing some experiments with it. Although one day I helped him do an experiment where we made a "volcano" and afterwards he told me that he was disappointed in the results. I guess he was hoping our house was going to blow up or something.

The boys also got a Hexbug nano set to share and they have been a big hit. The boys all love their bugs and can spend a remarkable amount of time watching the little bugs scurry all over the place. If you buy these for your kids you may want to stock up on button batteries because they go through batteries like crazy. Luckily we found a great deal on batteries on amazon.com and we've been using them!

We had a really fun Christmas this year. My mom and dad came over later in the morning to see what the kids had received and they had breakfast with us. Brian had surprised me on Christmas Eve with two kringles from the Danish bakery in Racine, Wisconsin and we enjoyed them on Christmas morning. In the afternoon Brian's mom and dad and two brothers stopped by for a visit as well. It's so nice to live close to family to be able to share holidays and even just ordinary days with them. We are really blessed and so very thankful.