Christmas Day 2018

My favorite Christmas tradition that we started a few years ago is that Dad is the first to wake up. He makes a nice cozy fire and starts breakfast, which consists of German pancakes and grapefruit. If we're lucky, we might also spoil ourselves with some bacon. We woke up to delicious smells and enjoyed our breakfast and fire, then let the kids see what Santa brought.


Gwen was thrilled she got "Just Dance" to play on the Wii, Lindy was thrilled with her "My Little Pony" set, Miles was thrilled with his Minecraft game (but bummed he had to wait till our computer was fixed to actually use it), and Benson was thrilled with his wagon. After I felt like they gave those gifts adequate attention, we moved onto wrapped presents. Hands down, my favorite was watching the kids when someone was opening a present they had given. They were so excited and just couldn't contain it! As siblings they drew names and picked out gifts for each other at the DI, and then we washed them up here at home. Lindy gave Benson a toy car, Benson gave Gwen some barbies, Miles gave Lindy a barbie, and Gwen gave Miles a doggie stuffed animal. I loved that Gwen gifted me a rock she found on a walk, and some mixing bowls I had bought myself a while ago and stashed downstairs. I loved that Miles gave Richie and I each a book he bought with his own money at the library. Check out the one he picked for Richie!:) After those favorite moments, my next favorite was watching the girls open their presents from Richie and I. I gave them my old American girl dolls. They were over the moon about it, and I was a little more sentimental about it than expected. They are already 100x more worn in these few weeks than they ever were when I had them for years, but I wanted them to be really and truly played with.


We paused the gifts for a moment to go over the Grandma and Grandpa's house so that we could Skype with Elder Garner! It's always nice to see their face and chat for a bit, but I admit I feel a bit awkward doing the missionary call thing.


We came home, opened our stockings, cleaned up, and then the kids proceeded to play Just Dance for 3 hours without stopping. No joke. Talk about a work out! Then family came over to hang out and they played with them too! It was a really wonderful Christmas Day.