Christmas - the finale

I'm ready to wrap up Christmas with a big shiny bow and put it back in the attic!!

So here's my final Christmas post and it is all about the big morning!!

Parker had big plans to get up around 5:00 to open presents and I flat out told him that wasn't going to happen!! I put an alarm clock in his room and told him not to come out until at least 7:30. Then I set it an hour ahead hoping for 8:30!! Luke came in around 7:45, so excited that Santa had, in fact, come!! He said Alex and Parker were in the playroom playing video games. So, I'm not sure how long they had been up, but it didn't matter because we all got to sleep in a little.

We all make it into the living room and Alex brings me a present and Parker takes Scott a present. I say something like, "guys, why don't yall open your presents from Santa first? We can wait to open ours." And Parker sweetly says, "no - yall open first. We love yall more than we love ourselves!!" Scott and I say "aaawwwwww - ok!!" (not sure how much truth there was to that little statement, but it was very nice for him to say!!)

Parker gave Scott a mini Minnesota Vikings helmet and Alex gave me this:

The picture is not very clear but it is a blown glass thingy that says "mom" with a red rose.

Here are the boys opening and having a little fun:

Here are the night before pics in our new jammies and with Santa's milk and cookies. A sign of the times - I realized about 5:00 that we hadn't made any cookies for Santa. Thankfully, Santa loves Oreos so that's what we did!!

Landry was done with pictures by this point, as is evidenced by his showing of his mean eyes!!

Here's the big gift of the day. This was technically for the three older boys so we wrapped it in way that they could all have a part in opening it. Luke started us off -

When Luke got into the bag, there was a big box for Parker

When Parker opened the box, there was a box for Alex.

And when it was opened, we had a Wii!! Yay for the wii!!

As you can see from the picture, Luke is still a little upset that the big present wasn't for him exclusively!! It seemed like such a great idea at the time!!

All in all, it was a fun day. I totally forgot to take pictures of lunch at my mom's house. I think it was because Edith and George and specifically "Little George" weren't there. "Little George" always gives the kids such a good time, playing whatever they want - football, basketball, wrestling, games. They think he's like 15 years old, even though he's a little older than that!!!

Finally, here are the pics of the completed gingerbread house!! My camera batteries went dead right after we finished it, so I kind of forgot that I never posted the finished product. Let me just say that I forgot how much fun these really are!! It completely tested my patience but the kids had a great time. Once I got over the fact that it wasn't necessarily going to look anything like the box, I was able to enjoy it and watch the kids have fun!!

I hope your Christmas was amazing and utterly exhausting, as ours was!! The lady working the drive-thru at McDonalds on the morning after Christmas (shopping, of course!) summed it up best when she said, "I'm just glad it's over!! I'd alot rather go to work than do Christmas again!!"

To which I replied - thanks for sharing!!