Christmas 2008

Because we didnt leave for maryland on christmas day, like we have in the past, we were able to celebrate christmas at nana and pawpaws AND at our house. we havent had a christmas day of opening presents in our house since 2002. ever since then, we've flown out on christmas day- last year, we all flew out on christmas day, but the girls, jeremy and his parents went to chicago, and the boys and i to maryland.

anyway, it was nice to relax, and enjoy my days off of work at home for a while ... christmas eve, we headed to nana and pawpaws house- well actaully, everyone headed over there around 11am and worked on making a gingerbread house,





but i didnt get there until 4 or 5 because i had to work! nana made some beer bread (yum), queso, and the kids favorite thing was the chocolate fondue!



they couldnt get enough of it- especially brooke and justin! justin and nana made some cute stockings and dreidels that had candy in them- that they gave us.



that evening, we opened the presents that were at nana's house and everyone got to scratch off their lottery tickets. every year we all get tickets- noone has won big yet, but it's still fun! that night, when we got home, we had the boys write their letters to santa claus. i am not sure if justin believes in santa, but he pretends he does.. so they wrote their letters, we left some cookies and milk, and they went to bed. brooke then made a letter from santa to leave for the boys... she spent alot of time on it, and even laminated it! jeremy and i set up the new computer monitor, the tool bench, and the smart cycle so that santa's gifts were ready for morning.









because we never are home for christmas, the kids didnt know that most kids wake up at the crack of dawn to see what santa brought, and to open presents.. my kids slept until 930!

they read santa's note (well we read it to them) and they opened their presents- jacob gets sidetracked after one present- so he only opened a few and justin ripped the rest open for him- justin likes to open his presents FAST and carelessly- brooke likes to take FOREVER and likes to wait until everyone else has opened theirs before she opens hers- and brittany is a normal present opener. lol.



the girls got some clothes from pink and pj pants from pink, a camera, more clothes they had picked out at thanksgiving, frames, gift cards, jewelry, perfume, socks, shoes- i cant even remember what else. the boys got linkin logs, zoob, smart cycle, tool bench, computer monitor, a broom- which is jacobs FAVORITE toy of all- $3.99 at kaybee toys! a stomp rocket, alien maker, magic set, star wars dress up clothes, and more-











jeremy got some oakleys, a shirt, world of warcraft keyboard, a new mouse- and i got a gps, some cd's , new camera case, and i am getting a jewelry armoire when i find one i like that is reasonably priced...

after we opened the gifts, we headed back over to nana and pawpaws for some yummy food- we had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn casserole, green bean casserole, rolls, stuffing, cranberry sauce and probably more that i'm forgetting- and of course several desserts. we spent a while there playing, and then headed home for naps- the girls then left to go to reginas house to celebrate christmas over there- and get MORE presents! we headed back to nana and pawpaw's for leftovers for dinner...











here's brittany with her annoying half smile..



and jake entertaining us...



the boys LOVED the disposable cameras that nana and pawpaw got them.. who knows what is on them, especially jacobs, since he never even looked through the hole when he took the pics, he put the camera up to his forehead and snapped lol









and believe it or not, Kay (nana) and i WERE there, although you'd never know bc noone took pics of us!