Merry Christmas

Yeah, I know that I am late... WAY LATE, but I still wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I never truly got into the spirit of the holiday so I apologize for the lack of enthusiasm. Next year I will be better, I promise! We had a wonderful, quiet, mellow Christmas. Christmas Eve I spent the day cooking, well not really but the food was so yummy you would have thought that I had. A long time ago, before I had even graduated high school, my mom came across a recipe for a turkey that was different from your traditional roasted turkey. That year I helped my mom cook all day and I was in charge of the bird. The recipe calls for filling the turkey with orange slices, onions, and fresh rosemary and thyme. And then you also baste it with a mixture made out of orange juice concentrate and other yummy things. The turkey was a HIT and oh so yummy. A couple of years later when I had my own Thanksgiving for the first time I knew exactly how I wanted to cook my turkey and it was wonderful then too. So of course this year I did the same yummy orange turkey and it hasn't failed me yet. We loved it and the kids gobbled it up!

So we ate a yummy dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Wynia and opened presents. We let the kids open their traditional Christmas pj's and then their gifts to one another. I think that this is our new tradition. I love taking the kids out shopping for one another, even if I do keep their budget pretty limited. To see them get excited about GIVING instead of getting during the holidays is just awesome. So Josh and I decided to let them give their presents to each other on Christmas eve so that they could enjoy the spirit of GIVING a little more and it seemed to work great. Definitely our new tradition!

Aubrey loved the phone that Preston got her!Christmas morning was actually calm around our house. Aubrey and Preston slept in, I think that it was close to eight when we got up and I walked down to find this. Kendra and Ethan sitting on the couch reading their new books that they had got the night before sitting ever so patiently. I think that I about fell over. I don't think that these are my kids, or even kids at all for that matter. This is how our conversation went,

me: "what time did were you up?"

Kendra: "oh at about 7:12 I think"

Me: "why didn't you wake us up?"

Kendra: "because you were sleeping"

Me: "you still could have woke us up, didn't you want to open your presents?"

Kendra: "Well I have been reading, I am already done with the Sunday fairy book!"

Seriously? Not even normal! So I grabbed the camera and video camera and we took our sweet time opening up all of the wonderful presents. Ethan's excitement level definitely soared after he ripped open his first present and Preston was just as cute as he could be as he got exactly what he wanted.... a skateboard. Aubrey was actually pretty good at opening up the presents and with a little help from her brothers she made it through her pile. Kendra, who I think is hard to shop for, also ramped up her excitement and loved her presents but I would have to say that her fairy book set has seen the most action since Christmas by both her and Ethan!

Preston is not much of a morning person and he took a while to get going but after that he didn't stop all day, he crashed hard that night.

This is Josh before we headed downstairs, Aubrey was pretty content with staying in bed with daddy and Josh had no arguments either.

Kendra got the "Julie" American girl doll and a new outfit for her Kirsten doll. She was so excited that Kirsten got to have a friend now. She has never been too incredibly into dolls. She plays with them from time to time but nothing big or major so it has been fun to watch her enjoy these dolls and read their stories and actually get excited about them.

Later Christmas day we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Black's house and had another wonderful meal and played a super fun game of quelf! I love that game, it was too hilarious. At one point Josh had to give a 30 second monologue as he rode an ostrich in circles around a beached whale. He also happened to have the rule that told him he had to act like a member of the opposite sex so his delivered his monologue as a woman. We were cracking up and his step dad was quite perplexed as to what Josh was doing :)

Here is Josh and his brother and sister, I know it is really hard to see, sorry. They are playing the wii I think.Preston had to get a bath on Christmas morning and he wasn't too happy about it. I couldn't help take this picture when I was washing his hair, it is just so long!I had to include this picture of Aubrey with the slinky. She is totally perplexed by the thing! So that was our Christmas. We had a blast and are still trying to find places to put all of the new toys. The kids have been playing with their new imaginext sets pretty much everyday so I would say that Santa did pretty good this year.