Christmas 2008!

Okay, so I am a little slow getting Christmas posted, but what can I say? Life hasn't slowed down around here at all, and I'm so tired by the end of the day that I want to go to bed instead of get on the computer. So, I apologize to all my blog-stalkers for the wait.... lol ;)

This year we traveled to Utah to my in-laws for Christmas. For the two years we lived down here, we were lucky to have them come here. This year we all figured it was our turn to go there. We had a great time, we always have a lot of fun when we are all together. We left Tuesday night and got there at like 2 or 3 in the morning. It was nice to be there for Chritmsas Eve. We thought we might not be able to because Dustin was going to have to work, but he ended up not having to. We always let the kids open a present with pajamas in it on Christmas Eve, and this year Dustin's parents started the tradition of filling stockings for the kids and letting them open them on Christmas Eve also. I really liked how this worked out. I think the kids paid more attention to their stockings this way. I have always felt that stockings get kind of over looked on Christmas morning because of all the "bigger and better" presents. Gloria did a good job of filling the stockings with lots of fun and entertaining stuff. One thing being, some stuff called "FLARP" Noise Putty. We all decided that if the kids would have received nothing else for Christmas, they still would have been perfectly happy with just that. My kids think that any type of "fart" sound is hillarious and this is exactly what "FLARP" does. They were seriously entertained by it for hours. Some other simple things the kids seemed to be entertained with, ......a few practically deflated helium balloons, and Nana's shoes. Which leads me to wonder why we always stress and worry, and spend so much money on toys and other stuff that they are only excited about for 5 minutes, when really all they need is some "FLARP" from the dollar store. Who knows?.... Christmas morning is always like a whirl wind. Paper and bows flying everywhere, and who knows what anyone gets, but boy, do they have fun for the 10 minutes that it lasts. Christmas morning is much different with Dustin's family than it is with my family. My dad always wanted to see us all open everything, so he would hand out one present at time, most often, youngest to oldest, thus making Christmas morning last much longer. He would also have us put all of our paper in a garbage sack as we went, eliminating the sea of paper everywhere. I guess a little more orderly, but no less fun from my perspective. The end result is the same, I just think it is interesting how different families do things. What about you all? What are your Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning traditions?

I think the most exciting part of Christmas for me this year was receiving an armoire for my jewelry from Dustin's parents. I have wanted one of these for so long and I was so happy! I feel much more organized now that my jewelry is all nicely enclosed in one place... Some other exciting gifts for our family were Guitar Hero World Tour for the Wii, and also Wii Fit. We have already had so much fun playing the drums on Guitar Hero! Dustin will even play the drums, he is usually not a fan of any kind of games..... but this one has actually got him hooked, I think. ;)

The rest of Christmas day was spent taking a long nap (for me), snacking, and visiting. Friday, Gloria, Shalise and I went shopping and got stuff to make watches with. They are so dang cute! They are similar to the "Bumble" watches that everyone is wearing. We always enjoy making things together and usually end up doing one craft type thing everytime we go up there.

On Saturday we all went to see the movie "Bolt" in 3-D. I think we all really enjoyed the movie, it was one of the cuter animated ones I have seen lately. Sunday, was the dreaded day when we had to leave, everyone always gets a little teary eyed when it is time to say goodbye. We are thankful for the fun times and memories that we always take home with us, and we always look forward to the next time we can be together.