"Christmas: Take One!"

We had a "trial run" Christmas Eve before we left for Utah.  Due to the lack of room in the car and not wanting to drag our gifts to and fro we decided to have an early Christmas Eve.  That night we went and saw "The Nutcracker Ballet" then went out to dinner.  The kids were so excited to get home to open their gifts, they thought they were so lucky to be able to receive their presents early.  We made sure the kids understood that Santa would be bringing them a few more presents on the "Real" Christmas Eve.  One of our Christmas traditions the kids really look forward to is Home-made Christmas P.J.s!  R.J.'s were a baseball print and the girl's had a matching pink  kitten print.  I think I did a pretty good job sewing them (thanks for the help Allison).   I think the kids hit a record this year with opening their gifts, I think they finished, cleaned up and started playing with their loot in a matter of 10 minutes flat.  And all that wrapping took 3 long nights!  The kids really appreciated all their gifts.  Madison is going to become a great photographer with the new digital camera.  I should have thought twice about the ipod Payton recieved, she sure sings loud!  And R.J. is going to get a jump start with baseball this season, he was thrilled to open an envelope that held the registration form for the baseball camp at BYU.  And Rob wanted to start cooking that night with the Wusthof Knife set I got him.  I was content just staring at my Stretched Canvas Family Portrait Rob gave me, imagining how it's going to look framed and above my fire place!  My favorite gift to the family was a blog book, It contained all our family's blogs since I started in August 2007 till the year 2008'.  Next Christmas I plan on giving them 2008' blog book.  It's so neat to see their faces while they read, it makes such a great family journal!  This was a fun trial Christmas eve, but we now can't wait for the real one!