Christmas Eve...

Does this site above make anyone else, other than myself, tickled with excitement???

I don't know, it might be just a weird fetish I acquired while I was on my mission, but just about anytime a package arrives on our front doorstep, I get excited!!!

I failed to do ANY of my Christmas shopping on Black Friday, Cyber Monday or during any of the first few weeks of December... instead, I waited to do ALL of my gift shopping the Monday BEFORE Christmas.  I'm pleased to say, it didn't take too long either...  I only had to spend about 30 minutes seated in front of the computer, making a few purchases on my favorite website AMAZON and most of the boys gifts were bought!  Ta-DAH!  It was so easy and everything arrived by Wednesday {thanks to Amazon Prime}.  I finished up the rest of my gift shopping at Blickenstaff's toy store in Provo.  I LOVE this place!!! If you haven't ever been to Blickenstaff's and you live in or near Utah County, GO!!!  You won't regret it.  And while you're there, pick up a peach soda.  It's SO good!

This was the first Christmas holiday in many, many years that we didn't host or get together with anyone from my side of the family... my folks stayed in San Diego along with my brother, sister and their two families; my older sister flew to New York City for a day trip on Christmas Day with her family and my other sister, Tricia, stayed home in Texas with her husband and kids.  I was actually pretty disappointed we wouldn't see anyone from my family during the holidays, but as it turned out, we were so busy the whole month through, it's probably a good thing we didn't get together... I'm not sure how we could have squeezed a visit in!

Christmas EVE happens to be my mother's birthday {she was spending the weekend in Arizona watching after her mother while my aunt who normally cares for my grandmother, went to Phoenix to visit her children and grandchildren}...  my boys and I began the day by giving her a call and wishing her a Happy Birthday!  Eventually our boys got dressed, then Grandpa Campbell drove out here to our home to pick the three older ones up; he and grandma took the boys to a train museum in Springville then back to their house, so we {we meaning Spencer and I} could get some toys assembled, wrapped and last minute things checked off of our Christmas "To Do" list.  I spent the better part of the afternoon wrapping presents while watching a biography on Jackie O. and her marriages {I'm FASCINATED by biographies}, then we gathered our things, strapped Atticus and Bentley into their car seats and drove down to The Campbell's for dinner and gift opening.

Things can get pretty rowdy in The Campbell home 

when everyone's gathered together, 

so props to Aunt Emily for thinking to distract the younger kids 

by teaching them a silly hand dance!

This picture above is of probably one of the.greatest.moments.during.the.evening!

Over the summer, my mother in law Linda, purchased for my father in law and her, two round trip tickets to visit The Gilbert Islands.  They leave next week for two weeks!  They've never been, however, they used to live in Tonga {that's where Spencer was born- correction, he was actually born in American Samoa, but his family was living in Tonga at the time}; Les and Linda were called to teach at the Liahona school in Tonga some 34 years ago... they left behind everything they had, packed up only a few belongings, took their 3 small children with them {who were at the time only Aaron, Laura and Holly} and flew to Tonga to serve and teach.  There they met and grew to know a lot of islanders... they had students at the Liahona school from Tonga, Samoa, The Cook Islands, The Marshall Islands, New Zealand, Figi, Tahiti, and The Gilbert Islands.  Les and Linda have stayed close to many of these students they used to teach, love and care for and many of them have been over to visit Utah and some have even stayed briefly with Les and Linda {Mata- who we LOVE and consider to be family, was one of their students from The Cook Islands, who came back to live with The Campbell's shortly after they returned home from Tonga.. she was pretty much an older to sister to Aaron and Laura and she helped care for Spencer, who was just a baby at the time, while Les and Linda grieved the loss of their young daughter Holly.  Mata lived with the Campbell's for a couple of years while she finished out high school, then she eventually moved back home, lived in New Zealand for some time where she started her own family and about 5 years ago, she returned to live here in Utah with her daughter, Eden... It's been wonderful having her here.  Spencer loved her so much as a baby, and it had been YEARS since he'd seen her last... it's been very special having her get to spend time with our boys who are all the same ages Spencer was when she used to care for him.}. .  Some of Les and Linda's dearest friends are from The Gilbert Islands so it is a real treat for the two of them to be able to go there and visit!

Below is a short video clip with Les' response to the surprise!

Following gifts, the family reenacted The Christmas Story with Jesus' birth.

Noah played the role of a wise man...

Ian was a sheep...

... before he decided to change his mind,

then becoming a shepherd.

Cohen played the part of Joseph, 

paying more attention to grandma's teddy bear
than to his betrothed love Mary {cousin Maddie}

and newborn son,

Atticus {playing the part of baby Jesus}.

It soon grew late, so we hurried home with our boys.  We had about a millions things to do before laying them down to sleep for the night.  It was already 9'ish by the time we arrived home.

The boys and I set out milk and doughnuts {we figured that Santa probably gets enough cookies as it is, so why not change it up and offer doughnuts?! Besides, it's a good bribe for extra gifts, don't ya think???}

The night before we made this ice and carrot wreath below

for Santa's reindeer to nibble on 

while they waited on the big man to leave presents under our tree...

We used a green satin ribbon to hang it from a tree branch outside in front of our house... next year we may need to make a couple of these 

{possibly some with berries?} 

because the following morning, 

we found nothing left of the wreath except for the satin ribbon. 

Santa's reindeer must have been HUNGRY!

We also made 5 of these ice lanterns 

that illuminated the front porch of our house... 

our boys wanted Santa to be able to find our house from his sleigh up in the sky. 

Sorry, the picture above is pretty blurry, but you get the idea with the lanterns, right?

{We hosted a Christmas dinner party for a couple of Spencer's co-workers and their families at our home the week before Christmas and we used the same ice lanterns then to light up our front porch for when our guests arrived; everyone complimented us on how beautiful it looked. It really is such a simple but elegant idea... just freeze water in big mixing bowls--- either set bowls of water outside if it's cold enough to freeze overnight like we did or just set them in the freezer till they're frozen, be sure to insert in the middle of the bowl of water another cup filled with water... when water is all frozen, take the cup with the frozen water out and discard, then turn out frozen water from bowl.  Turn it right side up and add a lit tea light candle and VOILA! You have yourself an ice lantern!!!}

Of course, 

we had to track Santa on Norad and see where he was at in this big wide world

before turning in for the night... 

when our boys were finally ready to go to bed 

the Santa tracker said Santa was in Oklahoma!

Last but not least, before climbing into each of their own beds to dream about tin soldiers and sugar plum fairies, we unwrapped and read as a family the last book in our Christmas Book Advent Calendar...  or perhaps I should say, WE didn't read it, Grandma and Grandpa Truesdell read it to us!  {It was one of those Hallmark books that recorded my parents while they read it, saved the recording, then after they mailed it to us and we received it at our home, we were able to listen to the recording they made. OUR BOYS LOVED IT!  It will FOREVER be a treasured part of our Christmas's from here on out!!!}  The book was, appropriately, titled, "The Night Before Christmas".

At LONG last, after all of boys got out the last of their wiggles...

... we said family prayer, 

then tucked our boys away, all snug in their beds,

where it only took a minute or two for each one of them to fall fast asleep!

F.Y.I.  I checked the Santa tracker again, an hour after our boys had gone to bed, and at 11:10 it said Santa had reached Salt Lake City, Utah!  I was still awake when he must had arrived at our house, but perhaps I was upstairs in my room doing something, because when I went back downstairs 10 minutes later, presents were already in our boys stockings AND under our tree!!!