Christmas Recap

Well, we survived the Christmas crazy {only one more small party to go}!  Friday night was the worst, but after that it was smooth sailing!  

Saturday we hosted the Divis' family Christmas this year, instead of at my Aunt Jan and Uncle Bill's.  The boys golfed in the morning while the girls prepared the food and got everything ready!

 With my Uncle down for the count and unable to golf this year, it switched up the teams just a bit.  Kyan and my dad were on a team and Chad and my cousin Bob teamed up.  Any guesses who the winners were?  Yep!  Kyan and my dad!!!  Kyan was so excited to come up on top and flashed around his $5 proud as could be.

After golf, we ate a fabulous Italian meal and exchanged gifts!   Kyan got a box full of magic tricks from my aunt and uncle.  He was so excited for it and watch the How-To DVD it came with almost immediately!

Don't I wish this wasn't magic!



Then, we played Apples to Apples!  Last year I was sure we scared off my cousin's fiance {now husband} with our game play, but he came back for more this year.  My dad even joined us this year and dominated!  He is NOT allowed to play next year.  Just kidding.  Good job dad.

After playing games, most of the family took off to go to their own homes to celebrate Christmas either with other family members or with just each other.  Grandpa and Grandma Nebraska stuck around to exchange presents with us!  

While the kids were already spoiled earlier in the week with a big present, their were lots of little things to open under the tree, from us and from them.

They were so excited to get started!

They were showed were so many wonderful presents and are so lucky.

One of the things the kids got from us was the Kinect for the Xbox 360.  With it the Just Dance 2 game.  This may or may not have been more for me than it was them, but whatever!  It took us forever to get Lola on there and dancing, as the person is the controller and trying to tell a 3, almost 4year old what who has no gaming sense of anything {she does not take after her brother} was next to impossible!  But this is what happened when she finally got hooked up, her and her brother cut a rug!



One tradition we started a few years ago was sprinkling reindeer food outside for Santa's reindeer.   The kids want to make sure that they know exactly where they should go and we leave a treat for them...as Santa gets plenty of cookies everywhere else he goes! 

 

Santa came through once again this year and hooked it up!  He brought Lola a GoGo puppy and Kyan a new Wii and the new Zelda game!  

Kyan was the first to wake up and ask to go downstairs.  He wanted Santa to bring and Ipod touch, but he got that from us {we wrapped up Chad's old one that he never used, Kyan can't tell the difference?!} so he wasn't sure what there was left for Santa to bring.   Out of no where he has started talking about a hamster {ok, not out of no where, that would be thanks to Auntie Kiki, who he stayed with one day last week while he was sick}, but it was the first he mentioned to us the night before...so maybe for his birthday?!  He was very surprised to see a new Wii under the tree.  The old one just bit the dust a week before Christmas {or so we thought, more on that in another post} so it was perfect timing!  He loves playing Zelda now on his own, because he can finally read what you are supposed to do!  The new game came with a gold controller that he has told everyone he is the only person allowed to touch!

We had to wake Lola up from her slumber Christmas morning and I am sure that it was only because Santa left her something downstairs that she got up, otherwise she would have slept for another hour!  When she saw her puppy she the first thing she said was , "I was good to my brother!!!"  It was the cutest thing ever.  That is what Santa asked her to do on the video and she thought that is why she got the present!  She was so, so happy!

After only about 30 minutes of play time with their Santa gifts, we headed out to Rae and Lonnie's house for breakfast and to exchange gifts with Chad's side of the family!  It was a bit different this year without Donna there, as she just got her hip replace a week and a half ago and is still recovering.  But the food was delicious and we were still able to have some fun!

 

A picture of all the grandkids, just for Grandma Donna, on Christmas morning.  

We love and missed you.  

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We hung at home the remainder of the afternoon while the kids played with new toys.  Ate leftovers with my parents in the early evening and then headed to a movie, We Bought a Zoo, where I bawled my eyes out through most of it.  Perfect way to end the day, full of lots of love!

From our family to yours, we hope you had a wonderful weekend!