Christmas!!!

We got to spend Christmas with both of our families this year so it was extra dreamy!!

Cute Christmas kids ready for church! 

Van as the Star of Bethlehem at the family nativity on Christmas Eve.  When the other little boys started walking down the stairs dressed as an angel choir I questioned whether Van really fit in that role.... and then I saw my little star!  Perfect!  Love this little wild man! 

Emery and Missy were the heavenly angels.  Izzy was a bunny.  Complete with poofy tail.  So cute.  

Here's the whole cast and crew.  We decided that Garrett, Taylor and Josh were more like "The 3 wise guys" than the 3 wise men.  :)

Christmas morning - Santa came! 

Van snuck under the paper the elves put across his door.  He was excited when we told him he could break it! 

Christmas Morning Stall - my favorite Christmas tradition.  We make the kids wait upstairs while we check what Santa brought, call Grandma and Grandpa, turn on Christmas music and just generally waste time trying to drive them crazy.  It's what my parents did to us growing up.  :)

Coming down the stairs - finally! 

My little bro came up to spend Christmas with us!  We love the Guncle (what the kids call him!)

There was an incident while putting together plasma cars that ended in a very torn up finger for Aaron.  Poor guy! 

The kids usually get 3 gifts from mom and dad: 1 - something to read, 2 - something to wear and 3 - something to play with.  This year there were puzzle pieces in every box.  They opened all 9 then put it together.  

It sent them on a treasure hunt to find more clues. 

And eventually led them to the garage, where they found....

a trampoline!!  We'd been saving hard since we moved into our house.  The kids had put every penny they got in our jar and we had saved about 1/2 of what we needed.  So we bought them the other half for Christmas.  That big garage is the best money we've ever spent, I tell you!  Van is a happy kid to have a trampoline in his garage to goof around in! 

Baby loves Guncle

Van's monster snow hat!  It's so perfect for him! 

I love that most of my pics of the plasma cars are of my dad, husband and brother riding them.  Ha.  My dad thought they were so weird until he finally played on one!