Only 294 more days till next Christmas!

Most of my blogging friends were all apologizing the first week in January for posting Christmas pictures late; I can't help but wonder what they'll think of me now that I've decided to finally write and post pictures from our Christmas a month before Easter???...

We celebrated Christmas Eve over at Spencer's parents house;the boys reinacted The Nativity along with the help of Grandma and Grandpa Campbell, Uncle John, their cousin Victoria and Spencer.

Spencer played the part of Joseph, 
while the boys cousin Victoria played Mary & Bentley was baby Jesus.

(I'm afraid Spencer and Bentley need to polish up a bit on their parts and show a bit more reverence 
before we can take this act on the road.
Check it out, Bentley was sticking his tongue out at Spencer!)

 This was NOT your ordinary nativity...

Grandpa Campbell played the role of a wise man; Uncle John (in the red plaid shirt) was the angel (tallest angel I've ever seen!); Cohen was a shepherd (he's carrying his staff); Noah was supposed to be another wise man but he decided his bird puppet would make a better wise man; Grandma Campbell was another wise man 
and Ian played the part of another shepherd.

Miraculously I managed to get all of my Christmas shopping done early in December and wrap all the presents before Christmas Eve ... any other family would have just laid the presents out under the Christmas tree leaving them there to be opened on Christmas morning, but we haven't quite reached that level of trust with our children...

...presents were crowding every hiding spot in the house!

We stayed out late Christmas Eve with Spencer's family and didn't return home till REALLY late... but before hitting the sack, I had to tidy up the house (I wouldn't have wanted Santa to visit a messy house!), set the dinner table for our guests who were coming over in the morning, and FINALLY put all the presents out under the tree! (I'll be honest though, I was really afraid that between 11p.m. and 6 o'clock the following morning, that one of the boys would sneak out of their bed, climb downstairs and open ALL of the Christmas presents without supervision, thus spoiling the surprise).

The table was set...

... after which I made few food preparations for our Christmas brunch...

...next the stockings were hung...

...and finally the presents were put out under the tree!

Christmas morning came... NO SNOW!  I absolutely hate it here in Utah when we don't have snow on Christmas; I decided to keep the blinds shut through out the day; people want to see a "White Christmas", NOT a gray gloomy one.

I was up around 6 expecting one or two of the boys to be up, but they were all still sound asleep, so like any mother would do in a rare moment like so, I decided to take a shower and put on my makeup; I didn't want to look YuCk for the camera, or better yet scare our guests with bed head and morning breath.

I took my time...

...an hour passed.

Surely one of the boys would be awake by now I thought, but no such luck, they were still visiting dreamland.

Any other morning, and I would savor this time to myself, but after tidying up the house again,

DVR'ing The Walt Disney World Christmas Parade (it's been a tradition of mine for as long as I can remember to watch Disney's Christmas Parade after opening gifts), lighting some candles and dawning Christmas music, I was left with nothing to do but sit and wait. Minutes slowly passed... I was going STIR cRaZy waiting for someone else in the house to wake up!

I lost my patience waiting and decided to finally wake Spencer up at 8; then together we went in and woke all the boys up.

After a quick round of changing 3 wet diapers, we were READY to go downstairs and see the gifts that Santa brought!

Our niece Tori, (Spencer's brother's oldest daughter), stayed at our place Christmas Eve and spent the morning with our family. She's 13. A teenager. She's SO over the belief that Santa Claus is real, and probably thought in her mind it was SO cheesy how much of a fuss I made it by pointing out to the boys hard evidence that Santa did IN FACT visit our house during the night; she could have spoiled the fun but she was a trooper and didn't say a word. She just went right along with my fabrications.

The boys received a stash of "goods" this Christmas!

We've decided in Christmas's  past to get each boy one present from "us" (meaning me & Spence), then a group gift for all of them from Santa and lastly one present for each of them from Santa.  Our plan has always worked well & has allowed us to stay with in our budget... better yet, our kids are always happy with what they've received because to them it seems like a lot, particularly because they practice the belief that:

"what belongs to one brother, rightfully belongs to another"!

It doesn't matter who the toy REALLY belongs too or was given too, in our family, the boys all play with each others toys.

(b.t.w. I like to at least try and be modest about the amount of gifts we give our boys so they'll appreciate them more; but although we've asked the grandparents to be modest with how many gifts they give the children, they still managed to spoil them rotten this Christmas! Just as a suggestion, the grandparents may want to buy themselves a dictionary this year; it appears they have misunderstood the definition of "modest". JOKE. Thanks a million mom and dad for buying our family the annual Thanksgiving Point Pass, WE LOVE IT!).

This Christmas I made an exception to our gift giving standards... I found the boys 2 group gifts from Santa...

...the first group gift was this cute little dollhouse for boys!

It's a fire station/police station,

complete with a pole for the firemen to slide down,

a basketball hoop,

twin bunk beds,

a treadmill

and a toilet!

It is SO MUCH cooler than doll houses made for little girls!

The second group gift from Santa for the boys was this awesome leather/wooden trunk

I can use now to store all of their lightsabers and dress up gear!

The boys all received dolls from Disney's Toy Story movie; 

they talk and interact with each other.

Ian got "Woody"; Noah received "Buzz Lightyear" & Cohen  now owns "Rex".

I LOVE this picture of Cohen!

I am not exaggerating,

he  just stood and stared at this toy in its box with out saying a word for 10 minutes!

...in fact, now that I think of it, our two middle children (Cohen & Ian, both 1 and 2 yrs old)

just did A LOT of staring the entire time while we were opening gifts!

Poor Bentley;

he seemed to be the only one in our household Christmas morning not having too much fun.

I have an idea he would have preferred to go back to sleep.

Remember this post I made earlier on my blog???

All Noah wanted this year for Christmas was a "Thomas the Train".  He was determined to get one, and trusted that Santa would bring him one. He tore through the wrapping on each present in a wild frenzy looking for his "Thomas the Train"! He didn't care that he just scored a  talking Buzz Lightyear doll from Santa, or better yet, a Buzz Lightyear Lazor Disk Shooter thingamajiggy; he tossed everything aside!...

...UNTIL,

finally at last,

he found one last present tucked away behind the tree...
Could it be???

It was!
Santa had brought him his very own "Thomas the Train",

just as he wanted!

He hurried upstairs to his toy room to play with his new train car

and we didn't hear from him for at least an hour until after our guests had arrived!

Some of Spencer's family
(Linda & Les, Megan & John & Mata & Eden)

came over to eat Christmas brunch with us.

We ate ham with an orange glaze, country fried potatoes, french toast and pancakes with all the toppings you can imagine, fruit salad, scrambeled eggs and drank homemade eggnog, chocolate milk and orange juice.

The food was delish!

Cohen liked the food too!

Pay no attention to his frown; 
this picture just screams

"I'm tired, I've had a busy morning and I'm ready for my nap!"

Our guests at the dinner table.

(of course Linda's on her phone; she is always on that phone! 
She keeps it tucked in her bra of all places just so she won't miss any calls !)

We opened a few more presents with Spencer's family after eating...

Spencer's sister Megan and her husband John
(he's really the one with the mad sewing skills)

made these Utah Jazz basketball pajama bottoms for Spencer.

They were just a tiny bit too snug for him,...

 ...SO

they belong to me now!

Funny thing is,

I don't even like basketball,

but I LOVE pajama bottoms

and I'm notorious for stealing old tee shirts 
and pj's that no longer fit Spencer and making them my own to wear around the house.
I think he's jealous that they fit me and not him! 
HA!

Spencer swore that very afternoon that he would meet up with John one day 
and sew a pair of Utah Jazz pajama pants that actually fit him;

then he promised that after he's done making his own,

he's going to make another 6 pairs for his buddies 
who participate weekly in the Utah Jazz Podcast he's put together.

3 months have since passed;

he hasn't sewn any yet!

(I've decided to insert here the link to my husbands Utah Jazz Basketball website,
you know,

just in case you're a Jazz fan too 
and want to read/listen to any of their articles/podcasts).

After filling our bellies with yummy food and opening up all the presents, we all sat down and enjoyed a lazy day lounging around the house in our pajamas, napping and playing video games on the Wii.

Our family's favorite Wii game: Mario Kart.

Fun times were had on Christmas Eve 

and Christmas  day!