{ christmas: part 1 }

There is so much Christmas love that I need to break it into a few posts!

The festivities kicked off the day before Christmas Eve when I decided we needed to let Oliver and Stella open an early gift. This year we decided to get them four gifts: something they wear, something they need, something they want, something they read. For the "need" gift (which by the way is hard to come up with.....they don't really "need" anything) we decided to get them something practical: luggage. We knew they would love having their own rolling suitcase and they would be put to good use. Seeing as though everything takes me 10 times longer on crutches, I wanted to be able to pack sooner than later so they opened their luggage a day and a half early.

And, as predicted, it was a hit!

Christmas Eve day Uncle Jeremy flew in, Uncle Shawn came over, and we met Kyle's crew at church. And, of course, the hit there was lighting candles for "Silent Night, Holy Night".

From there, we headed over to the Christensens for soup and the cousin present exchange.

 

Oliver and Stella got a huge cardboard castle that they can color/decorate and put up. It will be a great cold, snowy day project! 

After eating too much food (er, cookies), we headed home to have Oliver and Stella open up the rest of their gifts from us. But first, they put on their Christmas jammies.

Needless to say they were eager to open their gifts, highlights including a book, Gopher football/cheerleader attire, a Sophie boombox and a remote control car. Not to mention new slippers and a keyboard from Grandpa and Grandma C.

Go figure that Stella got the Sofia boombox that she has been begging for but instead decided that his remote control truck was better. And vice versa.

Santa visited overnight and loaded their stockings with fun things like footballs, princess Barbies, tape dispensers, Elmo show tickets, and puzzles.

I was also surprised with a stocking gift......a waterproof iPod with headphones to use in the pool. It isn't often that Chop is able to pull off a surprise but I didn't see this one coming. They will be put to good use in one week when I can get back into the water post surgery #2. Can't wait to try them out! And along the same lines, Chop got a FitBit to hold him accountable to some new years resolutions.

But the big Santa surprise was in the basement where they found his and her scooters and an indoor teeter totter!

As you can see from the video, the music items were a hit for booty shaking!

Before packing up and hitting the road to head to Plover on Christmas morning, O and S enjoyed chocolate chip Rudolph pancakes.

We are currently on the road as I write this and there is no doubt it is a white Christmas! A few inches fell overnight and it continues to snow/sleet as we make the trek to WI. Stay tuned for part 2!