Merry Christmas 2011!!

Finally going to quickly throw Christmas up here. Here's part 1, and when I figure out how to download pictures from my new camera onto the computer, I'll put part two! :)

No great funny stories, no major happenings (other than we sold our house and were not finding another one we liked!)

Just good family fun, and appreciating all we have. I always get all sappy at Christmas and think about how blessed I am to have such a good husband and family. How can I ever complain? Yet once in a while I do. Gotta fix that, don't I?

Lane's parents took all the kids and grandkids to a farm here in Mesa where we rode mules and horses, played old fashioned games, and took a hayride, then had a bonfire and ate dinner, and Taylor and Kayla played a couple songs on their guitars for us. We did that the Saturday before Christmas. It was different and fun. The kids loved it! Lane's parents are great people, and really good grandparents.

Then Christmas Eve was the traditional appetizers at Bryce and Sara's this year. We did a small talent show, and of course had the little kids dress up for the nativity. Some of the cousins weren't there this year, so my kids were sad, but they got to be all the starring roles in the nativity though because they were the only young ones!

Then of course we do a small little Christmas Eve thing at our house before the kids go to bed - they open their new pajamas, and they open an ornament from me that depicts something about the year for them.

Lane got a Santa from Italy - for our trip. Kayla got a blinged out K because she is our diva :), Savannah got a small snowglobe thing with her name on it, because I couldn't find an absent-minded professor ornament, Conner got an ornament with Rocky on it - as that has been his obsession this year, and Addi got a Justin Bieber ornament because she is going to marry him! :)

Then we put the kids to bed, and started the herculean task of assembling the trampoline we got them. Wow, that was a job!!! I started at 10:30, by 11:30 Lane came out to help me (it was cold!) and we started cruising until we found out we did most of it wrong and almost had to start completely over. Not good! Anyway, at 1:30 in the morning, we came in, set up the gifts, and crashed in bed at 2. Never again. The hardest part was knowing that we had to move in 4 weeks and take it back down and set it up at our new house! But we couldn't really give them the trampoline box and say, Merry Christmas! You'll get this in a month!

Christmas morning at 7 am we ushered the kids into the living room where the screaming, laughing and discovery begin. Of course everyone was super happy with what they got, so that is always fun. I feel bad for Kayla though because the older you get, the more expensive your presents get, and the smaller your pile gets. :( That's how it goes though, right?

This year I got Lane a guitar, and had to take it back because it isn't a left handed guitar. I found a lefty one, and will pick that up, and he will start lessons in a couple of weeks, because that's what he wanted! He is the HARDEST person in the world to shop for because he doesn't need or want anything! Ugh!!! Besides that it was a book, tickets to a Suns' game, and a book light? Wow, contain the excitement.

Then of course, he always goes overboard on me and I feel bad. First, most of the stuff I buy myself in December I have to give to him to wrap and put under the tree, so I got a bunch of stuff I "needed". Like clothes, accessories, etc. Then, he got me a new digital camera I have been wanting, I got a new phone 2 days before Christmas and he wrapped that box for me (nice), a new perfume I love, then I got tickets to the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells!!!! I was soooo excited about that! It is a tennis tournament that ALL the big name players go to because they love it. I can't wait to go!

Then, I opened a small jewelry box that had a beautiful Tahitian pearl surrounded by diamonds and in gold. Wow! Super pretty, unique, I love it, and it is too small for my finger! Dangit! So, I have to take it to a jeweler and get it sized. Like I said, he always gets me way too much, and then I feel bad I hardly got him anything! Ugh! Some day I'll have him find a new hobby that I can buy him a bunch of stuff for.

OK. That's it for part 1. Part 2 comes later!

We are moving this week, yikes! So it is crazy busy. I hate packing and moving. I really do! I hope this is the last time for a looooooong time!