Adventures of a Modern Farm Family: Christmas Day

Our Christmas day started early with Vincent waking us up at 7am, which is a lot better than I was expecting. Joel and Cecilia slept for another hour. Vincent was really confused when he came upstairs because Santa didn’t fill my stocking only everyone else’s. Oh dear! Note to self: get my own stocking stuffers next year. I told Vincent he could go get his stocking and bring it upstairs to open, apparently he had already peaked in everyone’s stockings because he was telling me what was in them before he went to get his. Santa put donuts, a juice box (which we normally don’t have in the house), and a fruit in their stockings so that I don’t have to cook breakfast right away. How great is Santa?! Later in the day Vincent found the box of juice boxes and said “Look, he left the rest of the box!”

Vincent and his stocking.

Trying on his new socks!

Joel and his stocking.

Cecilia and her stocking.

Daddy with his munchkins.

Mommy and her babies.

There weren’t many presents under our tree this year. The kids really get spoiled from all their loving relatives and we really don’t want the kids to think they need a lot of stuff to be happy, because they don’t. So we tried very hard to stick to a 4 gift rule. The rule is something to you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read. Sounds easy, but as I went shopping it was really hard to stick to only 4 things. Santa brings 1 gift for each of them and he doesn’t wrap gifts, because he doesn’t have time. This year we all got Bilibo seats, they are so much fun! Ok, I think they are and the kids kind of think they are fun. They are a great indoor/outdoor toy whose uses are only limited by your imagination.

Vincent opening a group gift.

Joel playing with the Santa gifts.

Cecilia opening a gift.

Brad playing with the little flashlights everyone got.

Opening clothes and a book.

Joel slowly opening his gift.

Vincent opening his gift.

Maisy and her gift.

Vincent and his new boots.

Joel and his new boots....they were a little too big.

Team work!

Cecilia loved the play food!

Brad and his helicopter.

They found the new kitchen.

Vincent, Joel and Cecilia.

My three chefs.

Chef Joel.

Vincent found another gift to open.

The kids big present this year was a bouncy house that we got on a garage sale site. The kids loved it, but it was bigger than we thought and the only place to set it up was in our living room. The kids didn’t seem to mind that we had to move all our furniture to fit it in the living room. Around mid-afternoon we realized it would fit in the garage and we moved it out there.

The bouncy house.

Looking a little big for the basement.

Not really working in the basement.

Fits great in the living room!

Brad’s parents stopped by in the morning just to say hi and see the Christmas morning chaos. In the late afternoon Kasi, Kennidy and my mom stopped by the house. We all went outside and went sledding for a little while. After they left Brad’s parents came by to spend a little more time with us. While they were there I left for the barn to go take care of Hank’s foot. I came back to Brad and Craig looking confused because they did something to the oven that caused an explosion. Light covers came off of lights and insulation was all over the kitchen. We now have a burner that I refuse to use for fear the same thing will happen again.

Sometimes a box is a lot of fun.

Vincent trying out his new sled.

Aunt Kennidy showing him how to use it.

Grandma Dawn taking pictures.

Grandma Dawn and Joel.

Kasi, Cecilia and Kennidy.

Vincent, Kasi, Cecilia, Kennidy, Joel and Grandma Dawn.

Aunt Kennidy and Vincent.

The sled didn't hold up to being pulled behind the 4 wheeler.

Kennidy and Vincent.

It was a great, relaxing Christmas day! The most exciting part though is that I took a pregnancy test that morning and left it on the bathroom counter for Brad to find. Several hours later he finally saw it and we had official proof that I was pregnant. We suspected it while we were in Arizona but we didn’t want to take a test then because we were sharing a house with 14 people and someone was bound to find out. Plus Brad didn’t think I could keep my mouth shut thru all the Christmas festivities. So Baby #4 is on the way and is due August 26^th, although we didn’t tell our families until Feb. 2^nd.