Christmas Day!!

We told the kids they couldn't come get us earlier than 7:00 am for presents. The girls were promptly in my room at 7:01 am. :) But they were very understanding when I told them we would be sleeping until Dad and Joey woke up...which ended up being at about 8:00 am. Joey was obviously not feeling well still, but hadn't thrown up in over 7 hours, so we were hopeful he was just feeling crummy from the rough night. The kids waited upstairs with Danny while I went downstairs to take pictures and be ready for the grand reveal...

...and once again, the kids made quite and impressive haul! Especially for a Christmas that was supposed to be mostly a trip and not so many presents. I guess they are really, really, REALLY good kids! :) And they were so excited to see that Santa wrote them another letter!

Santa was pretty good to the kids this year! Claire got her robot Dash that she had been asking for, a new book, and a Kindle upgrade. Sophie got a doodle book and the art kit she had asked for, a new book, and a Kindle upgrade. Johnny got an extreme marble works set, a new book, and...you guessed it...a Kindle upgrade. :) And Joey got a sports center, (complete with basketball, soccer, and bowling),  and remote control bumper cars! We had some pretty darn happy kids, and we hadn't even gotten to stockings yet! I just love Christmas morning!

Stockings are always a fun treat....literally. They were full of candy, journals for the girls, books for the boys, Danny got a new beanies, and I got some new ball point pens! But the most exciting moment of all was when the kids discovered they got squishes from Santa in their stockings!!

Then we got to the presents from Mom and Dad. We didn't get the "much" (at least, we were determined not to...but we're not sure we succeeded). The kids are loving to read, so we got them each a new book and started each of the girls on a new series. And since Joey isn't quite reading yet, we got him some awesome oversized trucks. He was pretty okay with that. :)

Next came sibling gifts, and this has become one of my most favorite parts of Christmas morning. As the kids are getting older, they are becoming more involved in what gift they get for sibling whose name they have. I love seeing the excitement not only in the one receiving the gift, but especially for the one giving it. This year, Claire had Sophie and her and I shopped together to get Sophie what she loves most...clothes and jewelry! She loved it all, and Claire was so happy to make Sophie so happy!

Joey had Claire this year, and well...Dad helped Joey out quite a bit with his gift. :) But they finally settled on a nice chess set. Having just competed in her first chess tournament before school let out of the winter break, Claire was pretty excited!

Sophie had Johnny this year, and she found the most perfect gift for John...a junior-sized leather football, gloves, and eye black! I've never seen Johnny so excited about anything in his entire life! These two fight like cats and dogs most of the time. It was so nice to see them loving each other so much!

And Johnny had Joey. This was tricky for Johnny, since he really wanted to get Joey something he'd love to play with. We shopped together, and decided on a nice set of wooden block that he could build with. Joey loved them!

There were still a few more gifts from Mom and Dad to each of the kids. We got each of the older kids some clothing item(s): Johnny got his first BYU hoodie, Claire got some new boots, and we went bargain shopping for Sophie and for the same budget as the other two were able to get her a pair of leggings and two tops! She was over the moon. :) Joey got some more trucks, which again he was perfectly fine with. 

But the gift we were most excited to give them (besides an awesome trip to Carlsbad for a week) were their brand new Camelbaks!! And lucky for us, the kids were every bit as excited to get them as we were to give them. Can't wait to get these bad boys out on the trails!

Our sweet Sophie Anne caught the Christmas Spirit this year and she spent a lot of time making gifts for everyone. There was a card for Danny and I, and a BYU ornament especially for Dad. And then she made boxes for Claire and Johnny that they could store their papers in, but also had a clip on it so that it doubled as a clip board! I just love that girl, and Claire and Johnny loved their gifts.

There were just a couple more gifts left after that. We opened the card from Grandpa Richard and Grandma Ruth Ann and found a hundred dollar bill! That will be useful in California, for sure! :) We're so grateful for their generous gift. And then it was time for the green pickle! Danny hid it good this year, and Sophie came out victorious...winning a Barnes and Noble gift card!!

And with that, Christmas morning was over. It takes weeks and weeks of preparation and planning, and it's over in less than an hour. But honestly, it's worth every minute of hassle. And this year was one of the best years yet. Danny and I started getting cleaned up while the kids spent a few minutes checking out their new gifts.

Luckily, Joey seemed to be feeling better, so we were pretty confident it must have just been a 24 hour bug. We finished packing up and got on the road a little later than usual, but considering our late start to the morning we were right on time. 

We were heading to Vegas for the night, getting us a little more than half way to the resort. We packed the food we needed, knowing from past experience that a lot of places are closed on Christmas Day. The weather was great, and we enjoyed a very uneventful trip...until we were about 45 minutes outside of Vegas and Joey puked everywhere. And I mean everywhere!! We pulled over and did our best to clean him and the carseat up, which meant opening the car top carrier in the freezing night air with cars moving past us and a screaming, cold, semi-naked sick toddler in the car. Great fun. :) Then I sat in the back with Joey to manage any additional puking and provide comfort and we all did our best to not pay attention to the awful stink in the car. 

Once we got checked into the hotel, we got Joey cleaned up good and into another clean pair of pajamas. Danny then proceeded to use a Tide pod (which I had thankfully packed for laundry at the resort) and the bath tub to clean Joey's vomit-soaked carseat. And that, folks, was a parenting first!! Ah, memories... 

This was starting out to be our most epic family road trip yet!!