{family christmases 2018}

we celebrated christmas early with john's mom.  the eight cherubs had fun running around and playing while the adults tried to have conversation.  the sunday before we celebrated with my family. on christmas eve we celebrated with john's dad for lunch.  i really slacked on taking pictures this christmas but i managed to grab a few of the kids. 

after lunch with john's dad on christmas eve we actually got to be home that evening. i envisioned playing games, watching movies, you know, traditional things that people do on christmas eve.  ha! john had another idea.  the kids were showing a little bit of attitude and entitlement so we spent 4 and a half hours cleaning out all the kids bedrooms and basement.  we took a crapton of stuff to goodwill and had 7 trash bags full of broken toys and junk.  it felt so good to have this done (even though i just did this during the summer). it's amazing how much stuff six people accumulate. after the cleaning fiasco, kenna got everything ready for santa.  she is at the age where she asks lots of questions about santa and says he can't be real, but then still shows excitement like there still might be a santa.  she stopped believing in the elf though so i admitted he wasn't real and she has been helping hide her each night. 

we got the kids 5 or 6 gifts each but they were smaller gifts and practical gifts.  i always worry christmas morning won't be special because we don't go all out, but it always is.  the twins had been asking for chainsaw nerf guns for months so they were thrilled to see santa brought those.  kenna asked santa for an iphone x or the whole series of owl diaries.  he came through with owl diaries and she was ecstatic. greyson's favorite gift was his shirt from the office. he loves that show! 

we spent christmas day lounging in our pjs, playing with our new toys and watching the first harry potter movie (greyson got the entire dvd set).  i also made my homemade cinnamon rolls (they did not turn out as good this year but they all still got eaten) and store bought egg casserole.  my parents came down for breakfast and basked in the kids excitement.  it was a perfect christmas day!