Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas season this year. I love the entire month of December. It is filled with joy and great music, and parties and awesome food! Who can argue with that? There were Christmas concerts, and Christmas parties. There was visiting with family and friends, and just enjoying the time we had together. We were lucky enough to have Stuart's younger brother Jeff with us for Christmas. It was awesome! He is in the army stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, but he got some leave for the holidays and we were delighted to have him share some of it with us. He told us about many of the new adventures that he is having, and shared some great stories. It was really cool to see how he has grown and changed over the last year or so since we saw him last. Thanks for coming Jeff! We loved having you!

I had a special request this year for the big guy in red. We were in need of new games, so that is what he brought. We all got games this year, and we have had a blast learning to play them all. In other loot...

This was a good year for Preston. He received some spy gear, some new Nerf blasters (a post about the resulting war to follow), and the new Night at the Museum movie. He also got a science kit from his aunt T and uncle Jeff.

Here is Stockton's response to getting the movie Up in his stocking. He promptly put it down, and did the "Caw Caw Grrrrrr" from the movie. TOOO Funny. He had us all rolling for hours! Other than that, he got a new sword, a scooter, a Hot Wheels dinosaur track, and some Moon Sand from Anut Kristen and uncle Jeff.This year Emma got a new scooter, and Easy Bake oven, some new lip gloss and a movie. Aunt Kristen and uncle Jeff also got her a new purse and some make up to go in it.

See, I really was there! It isn't very often that I'm not the one behind the camera, but I promise, I am there!

This was the first year we had the kids earn money to spend on each other. It was GREAT for so many reasons. One of those reasons is that the kids were BEGGING to do extra chores all month long so that they could earn more money. I loved it. I hardly did any laundry the entire month for all the extra help I had. They also LOVED getting to go to the store and shop for each other. The part where they now had a secret that they had to keep from each other was tough, and it almost killed Emma to not tell her brother for a whole 2 days. (I was smart enough to wait until the 23rd to take her shopping.) As you can see from this picture, it worked wonderfully! Any moment when these two aren't fighting is a good moment. Emma got Preston a package of 1500 marbles (heaven help me) and Preston got Emma her own apron and chef's had to wear when she helps out in the kitchen.

We had a wonderful holiday season and only wish we could have had more time to spend with each member of our family. Reality really bites sometimes. We missed you Mom and Dad Humes, and Mom and Grandpa John.!