Christmas Day 2011

Christmas morning always goes so much faster than I think it will.  All the planning, shopping, wrapping, and anticipating...and it's over in a flash of tearing wrapping paper and excitement.  This year the phrase of the morning was Lincoln's "It's just what I always wanted!"...I lost track of how many times he said it (with sincere enthusiasm) and it was darling.  Both he and Noah were excited about the things they got and it was fun to watch them open everything.  My parents and brothers Matt and Josh came to our house Christmas morning to watch the present opening frenzy and to have breakfast together.  Here are several video clips from that day!

The first clip is a long-ish (5 minute) clip of the boys coming downstairs and seeing everything, going through their stockings, and Noah opening his first gift:

The highlight for me of this clip is Lincoln opening his gift saying..."Is it a box?!"

Noah opening his hoped for twisting light saber:

Both boys opening a gift:

Max opening his first present:

This photo is of Mark and Max in their angry birds hats.  I saw them on some kids at a local restaurant and asked the mom if she made them (she did indeed).  I asked if she would be willing to make some for me if I payed her and she said she would.  I was thrilled!  At this point I hadn't seen angry birds hats in the stores like I do now, and they are much cuter than those that I have seen for sale commercially.  The whole hat (including the face/beak) is all hand knitted.  She made and sold them as a fundraiser for her daughter's school too.  If you want to look her up, she has a facebook page under Stitchery Witchery (Janie Hawley).  As for our hats...Mark got yellow, Max got light blue, Lincoln got red, Noah got black...and I'm the green pig.  Too fun!

Max opening his angry bird hat:

Linc sporting his new angry birds hat and his new Buzz sunglasses (which we weren't really thinking when we bought him since he can't really wear them over his glasses).

Lincoln with his big gift of the day.  The Toy Story "tower" as he called it.

Noah with the gifts he was really hoping for...a General Grievous mask and spinning light saber.  He has truly educated both Mark and I about Star Wars.  I love that Noah is so his own person with things that he decides to like!

Max's very first Christmas!

Max throwing his head back to get tummy tickles from Grandma:

This is my brother Josh.  Different things are wonderful for us on Christmas morning as we get older (like a nap)...

A 5-second clip of Max with one of his new toys:

Christmas fell on Sunday and we attended church with my parents.  Here are all my boys:

Noah, obviously still in Star Wars present heaven...

The warmest Christmas that I can ever remember having in Utah!

We promised Noah that if he took a "nice" picture (above), that we would do a picture posing like Star Wars characters too...

Ezra and Noah (back at my parents' house):

The grandkids with Grandma.

Audrey and Noah excited about chocolate!

Lincoln polishing off his treats at Grandma's house.

Ezra and Chelsey.

This was my side of the family's year for Christmas, but we usually still see the other side of the family at some point during the day too.  Mark's parents were out of town visiting Mark's sister's family this year though, so we missed seeing them.  We did think how happy we were that we weren't living 12 hours away from family like we were the previous year...and that I wasn't horribly sick this year like I was the prior year too.  Merry Christmas to us!