Christmas 2012

 After coordinating deliveries for three different families and finishing up our Nativity activities, we headed home.

 Opening a gift on Christmas Eve is a tradition many families share.  Our gifts always relate to a "bedtime" theme and this year it was time for good old pajamas again.

 The kids left egg nog and cookies for Santa along with a few cucumbers for Rudolph.

 And every year they sleep together in the same room so they can 'enact their Christmas plan'.  I thought Aaron's traps were pretty awesome but the kids managed to get past them all by 2:45am.

I'm not bothered by this tradition anymore because Santa wraps every gift and hides others so that I can see the surprise on their faces upon initial discovery:)

Our Charlie Brown Tree

We have a rule that nothing happens before 7am.  The kids have been great to patiently wait until this hour to come get us up each Christmas morning.

Gotta love the stocking stuffers!

Brinley showing her jewelry tree

 The kids draw names each year and this time around we had a funny configuration.  Tanner bought for Brinley and Brinley bought for Tanner.  Quinn and Jantzen bought for each other as did Anna and Elsie.

 They were very pleased with what they received...

 Tanner shows this incredible print of "Ministering of Angels".

 We now have our own "Christus" - thanks to Jantzen and his scout leaders for orchestrating this awesome gift!

 Brinley LOVES to give gifts - she has been very busy this season making things for others - including these wonderful smelling bath salts she gave me.

I don't know what else to say here - my good husband knows me well.  I was super excited about the new containers he surprised me with.  Do I qualify as an organizing junkie?

Aaron shows off his new family calendar for 2013

 Perhaps the biggest hit of the morning was Quinn's new car track thing-a-mi-gig.  We saw this product at Aunt Kathy's at Thanksgiving and knew he would get a lot of mileage out of playing with it (no pun intended ha-ha).  And we've already replaced the batteries on the two cars it came with.  He's been playing non-stop with this!

 And so have the other kids...

 Elsie's new doll and matching outfit.

 We enjoyed having Mom and Dad join us for the afternoon/evening.  They didn't mind a second helping of reuben sandwiches since that's become our traditional meal on Christmas Day.

Bob and Janene stopped by along with Brandon, Jack and Stephanie to say their good-byes.  They are moving to Tampa, Florida to begin a new chapter in Brandon's career.  Great adventures are ahead for them!

It was a very Merry Christmas - 2012!