SO MANY PRESENTS!

My mom wanted to have Christmas dinner at her house this year. We got there late because, well, I have to have a Christmas nap. So when we got there the boys were already riding and creating havoc in their new Paw Patrol four wheelers. They were so awesome to watch. Unfortunately for all of us, they were very loud and the boys seemed to love running into things while riding them.

This year my mom went crazy with the gifts. I couldn't believe how many were under the tree when we got there. Honestly it got a little out of hand, especially since we had already opened up gifts on Christmas Eve too. In fact we had to take a break from opening presents to have dinner. The boys also didn't really care about opening gifts because they wanted to ride all day on their Paw Patrol machines.

The most precious gift we got was a hand pencil drawing of Stella. My parents had asked a lady that my dad home teaches to draw a picture of Stella for her baptism. They finally just got it back and it was an amazing surprise. Brent loved it--I don't think I've ever seen him like a gift more than that drawing of Stella.

Other highlights of the first gift opening session were Lottie being an adorable Christmas angel baby, the million dollar blanket that I gave my dad as a gag, the tiny mermaid tail blankets the girls got from Ashley (Ashley was expecting them to be a great deal bigger), Mom opening up her Jamie Fraser Outlander doll that I found for her (she later said it was her favorite gift), Ava loving her dot-to-dot books just like the ones Auntie has (again she later told me it was her favorite gift--I even got a thank you note), and the Star Santa ornament that my mom found for me in a dollar bin at Walgreens.

Again, by now we were all pretty much starving and had to take a gift break to eat.

Dinner was really delicious. We were kind of all over the place but we all ate eventually, and soon it was time to finish off the gifts. We still had so many!

Highlights were Ashley's flamingo measuring cups from Courtney, my new Moorecroft pottery vase and polka-dot puffy coat, and Mom getting Dad the one gift he had really wanted as a kid but never got and that was a magic eight ball to tell him the future and answer all of his other really important questions. Meanwhile, Brent spent most of the night massaging his hurt neck with my mom and dad's new fancy neck massager.

Tyler and Courtney played us a very pretty "Little Drummer Boy" guitar duet (every time I turn around Courtney is astounding me with yet another one of her talents) and we hung out a bit longer before calling it a night.

I love my family and I love having these special Christmas memories together. Work building the LEGO hotel began immediately. I wanted to help very much, but Stella wasn't really having it. In the end I let her build the set herself. I guess it is maybe time for me to buy my own LEGOs. :)