As always, the night before we delivered plates of goodies to people. Amanda and the kids baked and made goodies ALL DAY long and it was a little rushed getting things ready to deliver, but we managed. Most of the people we had thought to deliver things to were not home, so Brian just ended taking it to other people in the ward. He said it felt good to do something nice for people- even if it was a little hectic. Meanwhile,. Amanda managed to get dinner all ready and the kitchen cleaned up (it was a disaster before with all the baking). We had yummy chicken cord on bleu, along with yummy red velvet cake (a tradition). We also had some delicious rolls- Amanda's Grandma Owen's famous recipe (there is alot of butter and flakes). It was nice to have them to remember Grandma Owen as she passed away in November.
After dinner we got together to read a book about the Nativity and to talk about the real reason we celebrate Christmas. We had the kids act out the Nativity using the felt Nativity set Amanda made the year before. Then we got the traditional jammies to open. Lily loved her princess jammies and Avery & Lily got superhero ones. Amanda and Brian even got some pajamas too.
Then it was off to bed! The kids were excited to put cookies out for Santa since they had made them that day. Avery also put a big jar of money out with a note for Santa that he was willing to pay some money if Santa could bring him a gas dirtbike.
When we woke up the next morning it was so exciting! We had family prayer and then did the family run to the Christmas room, with youngest to oldest. The video is too large to upload.
Well did Avery's hard work and the money he had save for months pay off? Yes! Santa brought him this:
He was so excited! He didn't even care that he didn't get a lot of presents (though he was happy with the few other things he did get). He has been dreaming about this forever! He worked hard and saved money to help Santa pay for it (he even wanted just money for his birthday instead of toys).
Santa had left the kids a note about their Christmas presents: He talked about what the true meaning of Christmas was- the birth of Jesus Christ. He also talk to Avery and told him he wasn't going to take the money, but that he needed to save that money for his mission some day.
He also wrote to Lily who got alot of princess dresses and told her she was a princess- a daughter of the highest king- our Heavenly Father.
Here is what everyone got for Christmas! We all took turns opening up things that they got.
Mason loved his kid scooter (you can take the seat off and its a regular scooter) as well as his ball popper (looks strangely familiar and similar to Avery's when he was a baby :-))
Lily got a bunch of princess dresses, a dress-up box, a bunch of movies, including Sleeping Beauty and Frozen, and play make-up.
Santa was nice enough to bring Avery a couple of small presents in his stocking- some Lego Mixels (he wanted some so much!)
After unwrapping what we gor from Santa, we exchanged the gifts we go for each other! We drew names out of a hat and each person got to pick a 10$ item for them. Avery thought really hard what he wanted to get Lily (even though he wanted to pick Mason). When he went shopping with Brian, he told him that she wanted a unicorn (which she had suddenly asked for a few days before Christmas) and some chocolate (because she wanted candy). Avery knew that Lily liked "the chocolate you make s'mores with." Brian said it was great to see him really think about the person he was getting the gift for.
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| with her chocolate and unicorn |
And Mason got Avery a couple of Mixels that just so happened to be in the same set as the Mixel Santa had brought him.
Brian got Amanda a pretty necklace:
And Amanda got Brian a watch and a safety vest:
After everything was unwrapped we went outside to try out Avery's new dirtbike! Overnight it had snowed a whole bunch! So it was a white Christmas!
Here is Avery on his dirtbike. It was a way to make it so it doesn't go too fast and Avery did such a great job at riding it around!
We had a quick breakfast of cereal and hot cocoa (from Santa in our stockings, a Christmas Tradition from Brian's family) we had to quickly pack and be out the door to get to Amanda's family Christmas party in Logan.
When we arrived at the party our tire decided to be flat! Well we spent a good time figuring out where to get it fixed, but no one was open. So we had to just use the donut until we got to Downey (where Amanda's parents live) later that night. And then we ended up having to drive it even further to Pocatello on the Donut since no one could fix it there!
What a fun magical Christmas!
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