Santa came and I have proof!!

This year was our very first Christmas in our own home and we absolutely loved it. We did Christmas Eve with my family this year and the kids participated in acting out the Christmas story and we played games, ate lots of food and had a great time.





We went home and got ready for Santa. The kids saw Santa's sleigh the whole way home and Rudolph's nose. We were in a race to beat them to our house. The kids frantically got carrots for the reindeer and 3 cookies for Santa and we couldn't forget milk. Alina had to count the carrots to make sure nobody was sneaking them before we went to bed.

They opened their Christmas Eve pj's and Alina was ecstatic with her new pj's, Austin and Greta were hoping for something else.

As we were getting ready we had a knock on our door and the kids ran to get it and on our doorstep was this.....

Our friends Jamie and Trent think they are pretty funny. Inside the box of the potato heads was a Christmas towel they won as a white elephant gift. They left the towel on our car after they left the party and we returned it to their doorstep. Now that we have it back we'll have to think of a clever way to return it to them. The war is on! Our kids love the potato heads, Alina carries hers around with her everywhere and Cam's even comes complete with a pocket protector.

After the excitement Austin told us he didn't care about the presents we had to wrap for them, he just wanted us to go to sleep so Santa could come. There was so much excitment in our house, it was so fun! The kids layed out their stockings and name tags we had made earlier in the week and they were off to bed. Cam went to check on them and they were looking out Greta's window to see if Santa was on Braden's roof (friends behind us) yet. Then they aksed if they thought Santa could leave a picture of himself. I told them we could write a letter and ask, Austin wanted to leave the video camera on all night to catch him. Here they are pretending to sleep.







Austin was the first one to wake up at 6:30 and we had to get the girls up and they were not happy. Then they remembered it was Christmas and ran down quickly. In my family we had a tradition of getting your favorite treat, food or whatever edible item to eat on the table. Alina requested gummi bears and Austin and Greta got their own donuts. Cam got a ginormous can of hot chocolate and I got fancy syrup for our french toast that morning.

Before we opened presents we had a prayer and laid baby Jesus in his manger and reminded the kids what Christmas is all about. The kids did a lot of service this past month and the bed was very soft. Next year they want to do even more.

Unfortunately we didn't take a single picture of Christmas morning, we only video taped it. But Santa did leave a picture of himself at our house along with a letter to the kids. They were so excited, it was the hit of the day.





Santa brought Austin and Greta the digital camera they wanted and Alina got her bike. He also brought them a personalized book. It's a story about them and their friends. The kids were happy and enjoyed all their new gifts. Cam surprised me with an Ipod and a sewing machine. I got him a golf caddy, and a gift certificate to get the book The Jospeph Smith Papers when they have more in stock, and 2 booster decks to Killer Bunnies.

I made art kits for the kids and put them inside boxes from Costco. Alina's was in a box of stuffing, when she opened it she said "yeah I get my own stuffing!!" That's how excited she was the whole day, she hugged us every time she opened something and was happy with everything. All 3 of them were, it was a great Christmas and the kids are already counting down for next year.