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We told the kids they could get up at 6:30, so at 6:29 Zach woke up all the other kids (poor Meg wasn't sure that was a good thing) and came to get us as well.  

Santa had left some fun treasures, and with gifts from generous grandparents and mom and dad everyone had much to be grateful for.  

  

  

 We spent the day at home by the fire, eating our traditional Christmas feast (cinnamon rolls and Papa Murphy's pizza), crafting, visiting with grandparents who stopped by, and playing catch, nerf guns, legos, and dolls.  

Zach is to the age where clothes are cool (note the selfies of his new attire:)

  

  

Meanwhile, Meg made sure she tried out every single present, one after the other, and then started over again.  By 5:00 she had had so much fun that she fell asleep at the bar eating chocolate – seriously, does a day get better than that?!

  

This of course led to some partying after everyone else was in bed.  

I would have to say, though, that my favorite part of Christmas was this:  Emma's card to Zach for her sibling gift (we had them earn money to buy a present for someone whose name they drew this year):

I tear up every time I see that.  I am so happy that they experienced the true joy of giving!  

It was a happy, happy Christmas day.

Sing at my Grandma's corner (everyone enjoys this much more than they appear to in this picture!)

 

Even Carter did some singing this year now that he is learning to read!

 

The kids loved the hot chocolate as much as I remember loving it when I was a kid. 🙂

I love my darling Grandma, and miss my Grandpa making the rounds chatting with everyone.  

 And Meg loved the bells – and jingled them through lots of songs (some that were meant for bell ringing and some that were not.  :)

Then it was off to the next event to have dinner and play some Adams family Christmas Bingo…

 Grandpa read the Christmas story

 Emma and Grandma presented their Santa visits the space station story they started last year (and that Emma illustrated)

 
And then home we went to open "the first gift of Christmas" (you have to say that in Liam Neeson's Polar Express voice) and to fulfil my Christmas wish (picture of kids in their jammies on Christmas Eve.)  

After setting out cookies and milk and a few carrots for the reindeer, the kids checked Santa's location on NORAD's santa tracker, tossed out their reindeer food from the Woodward cousin party and headed off to bed!  Santa, we're ready…

 We spent the last few days before Christmas:

Having a lovely Christmas dinner at my parents', complete with birthday cake – it was the fun to see it click with some of the younger kids that Christmas is really celebrating the birth of the Savior – even though we didn't sing Happy Birthday.  :)  (They sang Silent Night instead before deciding on gifts to give Jesus and very nearly gave up Grandpa's Christmas surprise!)

    

Delivering gifts to neighbors and friends

 Getting Christmas manicures

 

 Having an all-out Nerf battle playing steal the flag with Uncle David and Quinn (I think the dads might have had more fun than the kids!)

And watching one last round of Prep and Landing, and saying goodbye to Bob our elf (who left a selfie as the lock screen on my phone as a parting gift.)

  

Half of the fun of Christmas is all of the fun leading up to it!!  It's the most wonderful time of the year!

My dad said all he wanted for Christmas was for the grandkids to learn silent night in the mission languages of the dads in the family – Japanese, German, and Portuguese.  Well, somehow we actually pulled it off… and got together to have the kids film it this afternoon.  I have to say that mid-way through the crazy day I did think it would have been easier to walk through many holiday shopper-packed stores looking for the perfect gift instead… 🙂

I think he loved it though.  Upside down, crazy-face making kids, unpredictable camera shaking, and all.  In fact, that may have been what he loved most.  :)  And, it is perfectly wonderful to hear little voices in my house break out in "noite feliz" or "Stille Nacht" or "Kiyoshi".  

Carter and Meg and I spent the morning playing in the snow.  I have taken a lot of sledding pictures in my day but this is by far my favorite, because they were having so much fun that after pushing them I ran like crazy down the hill in front of them trying to catch a picture of their faces.  :)  Love having a sledding "hill" in our backyard!  

 Since the snow was too powdery to build much of a snowman, Carter taught Meg how to make snow angels instead (and she has been "making" them ever since on the carpet, wood floor, her towel, etc.)

 And just because conditions are not ideal for snowman building doesn't mean you can't come up with something.  :)  Introducing our teeny tiny snowman.  Luckily Meg was more concerned that he had a face than his size.  

A Christmas art project that would even make the Grinch crack a smile.  Love, love, love.

We had such a great time at temple square last year that we thought we'd make it a tradition… except this time, on a Wednesday night instead of a Saturday.  

We didn't have to wait at all for our carriage ride behind the white horse, which was good because it was cold.  (although not MN cold.)  Emma brought home a stuffed horse from school this afternoon and got the kids all excited about horses, including (and especially!) Meg, who couldn't wait for the horse ride.  She was initially disappointed that she couldn't see him, but luckily she could both hear him and smell him – she kept saying, "I hear the horsie!"  and "what is that smell?"

  

Afterward we enjoyed the temple square lights (and the toasty warm Tabernacle, where Meg was mesmerized with some random kid's fox hat)

 and made the traditional drop of our letters to Santa at the Macy's mailbox.  

  

Ever-nostalgic, Zach said after putting his letter in, "Maybe one year for Christmas, when I'm old, I'll ask for all of the letters I've ever written to Santa for Christmas.  I bet he keeps them…"  

Spent a morning making gingerbread cookies that were more fun than they were delicious.  A nice break from running errands and cleaning the house with some littles that were much more self-sufficient at this process than I thought they would be!  Meg kept telling me, "I can make the stars by myself!" And she could!  

  

 

 

We spent the morning making snowflakes (Carter) and coloring in princess dresses (Meg with a little neighborhood friend we were watching)…

  

until Meg reached for a crayon just out of reach and fell off the barstool, hitting the other barstool with her face on the way down.  She knocked one of her front teeth most of the way up into her gum and cut both the inside and outside of her lip enough to render the princess dress in need of a serious wash.  I actually don't think I have ever seen her so mad!  She didn't want me to look at her, help her, try to clean her up or see the extent of her injury,  or even give her her blanket or favorite stuffed animal – but she also didn't want me to put her down.  Suffice it to say there was a lot of screaming. 

Luckily my friend had just finished up and came to take her daughter, offer to take Carter to school (which he refused, opting instead to go with us to Dad's office), clean up the water Meg had spilled on the floor when she fell, and remind me to get my shoes so I didn't arrive at Nate's work barefoot.  :)  

Meg was not thrilled to be at the office either, until Nate's sweet assistant set her up with bracelets, sunglasses and a wand.  Now she wants to go back to his office all the time.  :)

Gratefully, she didn't need any stitches, and her tooth should re-erupt over time.  The injury did bring a few days without being able to eat or drink except through a straw, and an abrupt good-bye to the pacifier (which may have actually been harder on me than on her.)  She actually only asked for it once, and then seemed completely fine without it!  We love this tough little girl.