Christmas 2012

i enjoy all the preparation and anticipation for christmas

i am always sad when its over

this year was no different

we had a quiet and relaxing christmas... just the way i like it

we've established some traditions with the kids that they look forward to each year

on christmas eve morning, we make lefse

 after lefse is made and the kitchen is cleaned up, we eat a late lunch/early dinner and get ready for church

i try to get a picture of the crazies all dressed up in front of the tree {which died early this year...boo!} before we head off to church

 candlelight service at church {my favorite}

 then we come home and the kids open any gifts they've received that are not from us

 then the kiddos put on a movie and snuggle in somewhere to camp out in the bonus room

this year after they went to sleep, i got busy creating a scavenger hunt for the next day

instead of putting names on the gifts, i numbered them

i created clues that went with each number

some numbers had significance {their age, landon's football jersey #, etc} and some were random so those clues were more like math problems

i loved doing the scavenger hunt for the gifts and the kids loved it too

 christmas morning, waiting to check out stockings and see if santa arrived

they're off.....

 the only thing on her list was bars and beam for her AG doll mckenna

 the one thing on his wish list was skylander giants

this girl had NOTHING on her list... she was pretty excited about what santa brought

lance had to go to work early, so he missed out on stockings and santa

we had breakfast and the kids waited patiently for lance to come home to open gifts

i was thankful they had time to enjoy their gifts from santa and look through their stockings

 once lance arrived home, around noon, the kiddos got busy on their scavenger hunt and opened their gifts

one of the things i loved most about the scavenger hunt was that it took time for them to find each gift under the tree and open it

i felt like it helped to prolong our christmas morning

 after gifts were opened and a quick clean up around the house, everyone snuggled in for some quiet time {movies and naps}.

a little later in the afternoon, one of lance's business partners and his family came for dinner and dessert.

it was super casual and a nice way to end our christmas night.

we all went to bed with full tummies and full hearts.