Christmas Extravaganza

My family celebrated Christmas on the 23rd because of all of us kids' differing work schedules.  Thomas, unfortunately, had to work Christmas day so that meant we had to leave Christmas eve morning to head back to Idaho.
Since my dad didn't get off work till 5:30pm on Wednesday, we were all eagerly anticipating his arrival with my grandparents so that we could start opening presents.  It was pretty funny watching all of us sitting around in the dining room listening for the car to pull up.  Around 6pm we started opening presents.

My sister Ashley was sad I didn't have christmas jammies so right before we opened presents we ran to walmart and got some for me.

Usually somebody is designated as "santa" and hands out presents to everybody.  This year we all just kind of passed the presents to whoever they belonged to.  It was so fun watching my nephew Alex with his new toys.  He got a music set with drums and tambourines and bells and was just enthralled with it.  For about 15 minutes he sat banging on the drum with a look of deep concentration on his face.  He was hitting it so hard that it ended up breaking on one side.  He's a strong little guy. 

My big gift from Thomas was a Kindle.  I love it so far! It's awesome not having to lug around a bunch of books while on vacation.  I also like that you can put games on it too.  So far I have read Self magazine on it and started reading a book called "Run like a Mother"  which I like a lot.  We exchange names within our immediate families and have a $100 limit on that gift.  My sister had me and got me the suede couch covers that I had been wanting.  Thomas got some new snowboarding pants that he had been wanting from our brother-in-law.
Thomas' big gift was Guitar Hero World Tour with the whole band set up for his PS2.  We've had some problems setting it up so haven't played it yet but we are hoping to do so tonight. 
After everybody had opened their presents we played the $10 gift exchange game, which is a tradition we started a few years ago.  Everybody buys a $10 gift and then you pick numbers and starting with number one you choose a gift or steal one.  A gift can only be stolen two times and then it's safe.  I was the last one and so had my choice of gifts.  I went for the Yahtzee game (which I had bought) and Thomas got the belgium waffle maker (another one I had bought).  We were very happy with our choices :) Today I made pumpkin waffles on the waffle maker and the tasted wonderful. 
After all the gifts we sat down for Christmas dinner.  My dad recently learned how to smoke turkey so we had smoked turkey and ham.  I love the dark turkey meat.
I think we ended up playing Yahtzee that night.  Yahtzee has become our families go-to game lately.  I like it cause it's quick, fun, and exciting.
While home in Washington I think I went to bed at 10pm every night.  I'm such an old lady.  But I like going to bed at a decent hour because then I can get up before everybody else does to workout and not feel like I'm missing out on anything.  This trip I brought my Jillian Michael's DVD's and worked out to them every morning.  (I also got some new 3lb weights for Christmas)
Thomas and I both agreed that one of our top three favorite things we did on our Christmas trip was going sledding. Wednesday, before all of the present opening we went with my Mom to the nearby Junior High that has a great sledding hill.  We started off on a smaller little hill that was in between two of the buildings and then decided to move to the bigger hill.  It's a little worrisome because you end up right next to the building and if you go fast enough you could definetly crash into it.  I was a wimp and scared of the little jumps people made and would avoid them at all costs by bailing out of the sled.  I don't remember the last time I went sledding and had forgotten how fun it can be.



I love that my mom is up for any adventure and that she went sledding with us.

 Thursday we went over to Thomas' parents house for most of the day.  I loved walking into the house and Kayden, Lexi, Savannah, and Katie all shouted "LINDSEY'S HERE!!!" and ran to hug me.  That is exactly why I want to be a teacher.  Kids are just so fun and make life so happy.  The nieces and nephews were very entertaining.  We told knock knock jokes, I braided the girls hair, painted fingernails (even Kayden wanted his done), read christmas books, sang christmas songs, and danced.  Very fun.

Lexi and Katie Bug showing off their painted nails.

 The nieces and nephews even wanted to put on a little performance for Thomas and I so they sang Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  Adorable. 
We opened more presents there and ate lots of yummy food. 
Christmas eve was spent traveling home and we lucked out with clear roads all the way home. 

In front of the in-laws tree