Merry Christmas

We were so blessed this Christmas!!  Our friends and family showered us with kindness and gifts, including a generous anonymous envelope that was left at the bishops house for us.  It blows my mind to see how generous people are.  I hope I can always seek to be as generous to others as people have been to us.  We followed our pattern of Christmas day that we did last year, and I like it.  For me it's a good compromise between Eric's traditions and my traditions.  We of course wake up to see if Santa came!!  And he did!  And he brought the kids exactly what they wanted.

Stuffy

A big T-rex

Olaf

Then there was much unwrapping and joy.  The older three tore through there gifts.

CharlyAnn was much more meticulous and careful so was still unwrapping long past the others.  It was so cute.

But the big kids had things to do!  Time to play with the new toys!

After santa gifts we watched the Disney Christmas parade and had delicious breakfast burritos.

Then we had our nativity!!  It was a nice conglomeration of both direct scriptural reading and acting out of favorite parts.

Eric=Joseph, Viana=Mary, Brooke=innkeeper

And now Brooke is a wiseman

Emery was of course the newborn babe!

After that we were ready to open the other gifts.  The night before we had been dingdong ditched this huge box!  So we decided to start with that.  Someone once again had been beyond generous to our family.

The kids got such nice toys and Eric and I even got nice presents!  Whoever did that was generous and kind to think of us.  Though as you can see...we weren't lacking for presents!  

Even precious little Anabelle got a present--from both Santa and us!!  Lucky Anabelle!

It was such a great Christmas, I love my family so much.  It's so nice to just have nothing but time to spend with them during the holiday seasons!!

Christmas Eve!

Nostalgically Christmas Eve day didn't really mean much other than wearing a ridiculous outfit and trying to be patient for the evening to roll around.  NOT THIS YEAR!  I was wrapping gifts before the children woke up and was sneaking them out to the tree.  When I was out in the living room I noticed a dash through the blinds across the front yard.  I initially thought that the dash looked like Krista.  So I peeked out the window, and indeed--it was!  Except she was in a tent!!  In my yard!  In 10degree weather!!  Billy and Krista had arrived at our house at 11pm the night before and camped right there on our lawn.  It was a Christmas Eve miracle!!

Billy poured Krista a HUGE bowl of cereal.  I helped her eat it :)

We hung out with the Hiatts and ate delicious steak and pork Christmas eve lunch.  It was so fun.

When it was just Carters that night we were ready for our last envelope! (Oh you've been wanting to know what we did for the rest of the envelopes-ah, new baby nothing much exciting happened.)  The kids were old enough now to understand that this would be the traditional scavenger hunt envelope!  It was great--Eric came up with a new idea this year and he nailed it!!  He took pictures of the hiding spots on his phone, then each envelope was for a specific child, and that envelope had a riddle to solve before the next kid could see the picture on his phone and go get their clue.  They each had two envelopes and it all led to a game of course!

Looking at the picture

One of the riddles

CharlyAnn's question boiled down to "show us bad guy hands" (these are a new favorite of mine that CharlyAnn invented.  ADORABLE!)

Emery already knows the intimacies of Little Rascals and hasn't even seen it!

Pure Joy!

7 Carters!!

The new game!  "Who Shook Hook"  or as Ram calls it "Who Shrunk Hook"  The kids LOVE this game!!!

 After we played the game we left out a note and cookies and milk.

 And went to bed excited for the morning!!

I love this perfectly iconic Christmas Eve picture :)

We delivery!

You know Chinese take-out is the real deal when the advertisement reads 'we delivery'!  And since there is Asian in our blood we delivery too!  With Christmas being as commercialized as it is, one always hopes to be able to instill true Christmas in a child's heart.  One way we try to do this is by sharing Christmas cheer with our neighbors in a simple fashion each year.  I think it is working because the kiddos really enjoy doing.  But don't take my word for it, the proof is in the pudding. (Is that a real phrase?  Weird.  Let's go with the proof is in the pictures.)

 It has been an especially magical experience to have our newest little delivery around this Christmas too.  It really has been a joyous season.

And while Eric was in WA...

We locked ourselves in the house and stayed in our pajamas.  All except Emery who actually lost her belly button (or found it I guess) so was ready for her first full-fledged bath!!  She liked it!

 But seriously, the rest of us stayed in those pjs and watched Christmas movies til our heads fell off.  Sunday Viana and CharlyAnn were actually brave enough to venture to church with Merilee. (Bless her soul).

 And Emery remained best baby ever.