Our Christmas Story

Christmas Eve has always been my favorite day to the Christmas season. I love the anticipation and excitement that this day brings. We started early with last minute cleaning and a few errands in the morning. Shortly after that, Nana, Uncle Bob, Aunt Leeshie and Presley came to visit us before they went to Layton with Alicia's family that night. Ever since Nana has had grandkids she has done PJ's for them on Christmas Eve. With Ryan's family not being around closer to bedtime we dressed the kiddos in PJ's early just to get a picture of all of them together. They were pretty dang excited about their new jammies,

but they weren't about to sit still long enough to get a picture with all 3 of them on Nana's  lap.

When it was time for our visitors to leave, we got the boys undressed out of their PJ's and we left to see "Tangled" just us 4. We don't do the movies very often, but I think we should because the boys were great the whole time! As long as both of them had their popcorn on hand they were good to go. Andersen even took a nap when he was all popcorned out. After the movie we had Christmas Eve dinner at "Cafe Rito" per Jackson's request. Not your typical Christmas Eve dinner but it was nice just to be together as a family.

After dinner we took the boys straight home to the bathtub so they were all clean for their new PJ's. I don't know what it is but kiddos freshly cleaned and lotioned all dressed in pajamas is my favorite! My boys are always so cuddly at night time so it is always good family time for us right before bedtime. Andersen is always so good at going to bed, but Christmas Eve is probably the easiest night out of the whole year to get Jackson in his bed. He actually asked to go to bed because he knew the sooner he went to bed the sooner it was Christmas morning.

I don't know who was more excited for Christmas morning... us parents or Jackson? This is the first year he has really understood the concept of Santa and he was so excited to see if Santa brought him his "Hulk Suit" that he desperately wanted. Nate and I couldn't wait to see his reaction.

Morning came and we started around 7am. Not bad for our family considering they rarely sleep past 7 on normal days let alone sleeping in on a day like Christmas. I think Jackson kind of forgot that it was Christmas morning at first, but shortly after he realized the big day was FINALLY here!

I made him wait in the hall so I could take pictures and video record his reaction as he came around the corner to their surprises. Both boys missed the whole couch of stuff and just noticed presents under the tree (I refused to put the presents under the tree before because Jackson wouldn't stop asking if he could open them) After a few looks around he found his stocking. Still no reaction of finding Hulk until we told him to look on top of the couch. That's when the excitement finally hit! His first words were "I knew Santa would bring me my Hulk suit".

Even though Jackson was excited about the costume he anxiously started unwrapping the presents on the couch from Santa first

while Andersen watched from Grandma Kay's lap. He was clueless to what all this excitement was about, but was content watching Jackson.

Andersen's contentment only lasted for a few minutes. After learning from Jackson on what to do with the presents Andersen started unwrapping his

while Jackson tried on his costume! He was hilarious! Jackson kept posing in his costume and did this pose for the camera all by himself. Can you tell he is a little obsessed with Hulk right now?

He even finished unwrapping the rest of his presents dressed in his costume because he was loving it so much.

Andersen was fun to watch as well because he loved ripping all the paper off the presents and he loved chasing this Zhu Zhu pet around the kitchen.

Every year Nate and I think it can't get more fun than this, but every year it just keeps getting better and more fun with these kiddos. Can't wait to see the boys reactions next year! As parents we are always relieved when the kids are satisfied after all that anticipation, but this year was definitely rewarding with the "Hulk Suit" arriving just 2 days before Christmas! We were also glad we got to share Christmas morning with my parents.

I forgot to take pictures of the rest of Christmas Day, but after we were done with presents we made breakfast and got ready to go over to the hotel where my parents were staying to do Christmas with my side of the family. We had everyone together minus my sister and her family, who are in Minnesota, but they were still apart of it through webcam. The kiddos got spoiled for the 2nd time and off we went to Great Grandma Hansen's to visit before the Rothe's party started. We visited there for an hour or so with all the cousins, aunts and uncles and reminisced all our Christmas's with Grandpa and how different it was to not have him there. Then we made it over to Nate's family. We had a yummy dinner together, participated in Nana's nativity story and songs and then did presents again. Man did these kiddos get spoiled from everyone! With kids being off the normal nap schedule Andersen was worn out so I went home with Andersen while Nate and Jackson stayed and played the Wii with his brothers. 

This was the 7th year Nate and I have celebrated Christmas together and they just keep getting better. We feel so lucky to be surrounded by family (some we wish were closer) and to be able to spend this special holiday remembering the real meaning behind this Christmas Day. With Jackson being older and understanding so much more we wanted to make sure we taught him why we celebrate like this rather than just thinking it is a random day to get presents. He doesn't quite understand the nativity story but what he did grasp this year is that we are celebrating the Savior's birthday. We taught him, just like we celebrate his birthday every year, it is important that we remember to celebrate Christ's birth and to make sure we invite Him to his own birthday party, so to speak. Let's just hope we can build off that next year!