Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

The Evans have a Christmas Eve tradition of getting together for dinner, then having a talent show and acting out the nativity. Nothing novel, I realize, but we have been lacking in the "talent" department every year. Well this year, Trav had the idea to get helium balloons and sing the Chipmunk song ... "Christmas don't be late". We even admitted our plans to the lady at Safeway who filled up our balloons, but I think she thought we were crazy. And I felt a little dumb, like maybe she thought I was endangering my fetus or something (also why I didn't tell my mom). But it really can't be harmful, right? Collin was our {Alvin}. ( I know the A should be on the front, but then he would have taken it off)  I have video of our performance, but it's pretty cheesy so I'll  not be posting it. Trav did a great choreography job when the "hula hoop" part came up though. He's got moves. I was just proud to actually have something prepared beforehand this year. :)

Collin was one of the Wisemen this year... his mouth is stuffed to the brim with M&M's so he'd cooperate.

The whole group doing the nativity...

My wiseman is just thrilled to be there :)

Later that night when we went back to my parent's house, we were soundly hushed when we interrupted the  playing of National Lampoon's Christmas. Just as sacred as acting out the nativity.

Christmas morning we exchanged gifts at my parent's house and I was thrilled to get the set of The Book of Mormon Made Easier! Wahoo! I've wanted these for a while now. My favorite gift of the day!

We were all stumped about this present.... :)

 And of course the little boys were all excited to play with Grandpa's new "toy".

This should have been David's boring {missionary} Christmas, but I think this was his only gospel related gift. He's going to be a sharp lookin' missionary!

Shelley had the genius idea to make freezer meals for my mom since she has long sinced been {cooked out} by 7 kids. So a week earlier, I went over to her house and we knocked out 10 freezer meals. I had the nastiest cankles after being on my feet for 5+ hours, but it was so worth it to see the look on her face when she opened the box, then proceeded to pump both arms in the air like she'd won the lottery!

I made Miss Marcie Moo a necklace then found a cute shirt to go with it... all the boys had to make cracks about it being see-through of course.

We are grateful for Casey and his knowledge of my dad's "needs", so we jumped on board with their gift this year. He was pretty excited about this drill and started outlining all it's features, just like he was on QVC.

David and Jefferson ended with the same gift so we made them open it "back to back", just like Shelley and I spent most of our Christmases. Oh, being a twin. :)

Trav joined the {boy fashionistas} of the family with his plaid shirt. :)

And Collin got a Home Depot toy saw, complete with safety goggles that he thoroughly enjoys. Apparently, they were the very reason Grandma purchased them. Good buy, Mom!

Since my parent's gift to the married kids is money, my mom likes to spice things up with a game so we can "win" our money. This year was a fun trivia game with the categories "Acro- what" (Acronyms), "Primary tunes", "Are you my brother's keeper?" (facts about our 4 brothers), and "Random Thoughts". She awarded us our money just for playing, but you won the bonus money by winning the most points in the game and picking which Bonus Bag you wanted first. There were three bags with $50, $100, and no money in them. We picked first and snagged Mr. Benjamin! Shell and Casey picked the $50, which left nothing for Christopher and Jael :(. I was nearly as excited about the can of beans that the bills were taped to as I was the money (Refried beans are WAY too expensive in Buffalo!). I look forward to our game every year... thanks Mom!  

Our group Christmas shot minus the father. I guess someone has to take the picture. I think Lane had just been scolded. :)

After snarfing on biscuits and gravy for breakfast, we had lunch at my grandma and grandpa's house later in the afternoon, then spent the evening with the Evans'. Grandpa had gotten a new toy horse that was the hit of the grandkids.

I didn't get any pictures of the gift exchange between siblings, but this was the craft I made for one of Paula's gifts. I got the idea from Shelley and I'm proud to say that Trav helped make it just as much as I did! He finally took pity on my burnt fingers and stepped in to help with the hot glueing. Now we both could have 3rd degree burns :)

Collin was so excited to get "CARS!" from Grandma, along with some clothes. The green "snot" ball was also a favorite.

My mother-in-law is so amazing to sew us all new pajama pants every year for Christmas!

Here are some of the models of year's past...

Now for the not-so-favorite moment of the day....

I was outside cooling off... Arizona people think it needs to be 74+ degrees to be warm... and Collin was playing while the dogs ate their dinner. Well he made the mistake of interrupting Hopper's/stupid dog's meal and he turned and bit Collin. I grabbed him and rushed him inside, only seeing the dent on top of his arm, but when Trav took him and flipped his wrist over, you could see the deep puncture in his arm. That's when I freaked. I hate dogs anyway, and I know I'm an overly paranoid first time mother, but I just felt so bad for him! He was crying, but didn't do too bad when we cleaned it out and put a band-aid over it. I wanted to kick the dumb dog, but I guess Wayne did that for me. It healed fine, but Collin was very much aware of what the "woo woo's" did and for the rest of the trip would meekly hold out his wrist and pitifully say "woo woo's", reminding you of his injustice. However, it also didn't stop him from playing with the dogs. I don't know if that's good (get back on the horse!) or bad (doesn't learn from his mistakes).

I just took this picture to show his battle wound. His dad likes to remind him that chicks dig scars.

Regardless, I this was my favorite Christmas to date. It's so easy to take your family for granted when you're younger, but I think especially once you've moved away, you realize how important they are. I literally loved every second we had at home (ok, minus previous incident) but I really felt so blessed to be a Lindblom and an Evans! Thank you, family, for all you did for us this year. We are lucky, lucky, lucky.