We always tell the kids they can't wake us up until 7am on Christmas morning. I ended up waking up about 20 minutes early so I was able to go downstairs, turn the lights on, light my candle and start some Christmas music. When I was going back upstairs the kids were just going into our room and they flipped on the light and started saying it was Christmas morning. Not exactly the nicest wake up for poor Michael.
Ready to head downstairs to celebrate Christmas!
Ella was so excited to get her Barbie Ultimate Closet! About 2 years ago we moved her Barbie house to Ga-Ga & Pa's since she doesn't really play with them here. Anna & Addison love to play Barbies with Ella so it's a special treat that she doesn't get everyday. She saw this Ultimate Closet in one of the many catalogs we received in the mail.
Jackson is always the hardest kid to buy for. At first his Santa gift was going to be a Harry Potter game. I knew that he'd most likely enjoy it, but he didn't really know it existed so he would be EXCITED about it. He had circled this Ninjago LEGO set in the LEGO catalog and he knew it was too expensive and he wouldn't be getting it. It was so fun to prove him wrong and really surprise him.
Owen found this version of Simon called Simon Air on Amazon while making his Christmas list. He loves the regular game of Simon so much he knew he would love this one that had a fun twist to it. I looked it up and it was expensive for a game. I decided to watch the video and it is actually very involved and you can even play with another person so that's fun! I did end up finding it for cheaper on Ebay though!
I guess I didn't get a picture of Zeke with his Santa gift...he had mentioned wanting a marble run so that's what he got!
Ella bought her dollies a purple purse to put their school supplies in.
Ella with all her gifts!
Owen with his haul!
Jackson ready to ripe into his gifts!
Zeke Man ready to open his gifts!
One thing I tried to do differently this year was to wrap the kids gifts in the packaging they came in. In years past I would take the gift and if it wasn't in a box like a board game I would put it in a box and wrap the box. It can be so underwhelming to open up another Amazon box. I wanted the kids to rip into their gift and know what they got right away.
The kids were SO excited to find out what they got from their siblings so they decided to all open their sibling gifts first.
Jack drew Owen's name this year and it was so sweet to see him pick out such a nice and expensive gift for his brother. In years past he would have a hard time focusing on the person he was shopping for and instead would be drawn to things he wanted. This year that was not an issue at all! He was so excited to see Owen open his new sniper rifle. Fred Meyer's was having a sale when I took the kids shopping so it was 50% off a second Nerf product so Jack got him some extra darts to go with his rifle.
Owen drew Jack's name and again he was so sweet about picking out things that he knew Jack would like. He got Jack a Beyblade, a Hot Wheels car and this dart crossbow. Owen kept saying that after Christmas he wanted to go buy himself a crossbow too so they could be crossbow bros!
Zeke got Ella this surprise Barbie. Barbie is taking hints from LOL Dolls in regards to their being surprises in the packaging. It was so fun to open the cardboard doors and see what was hiding behind them. Ella got ice skates, a trophy, a lap top, glasses, a hard hat and one more thing I can't remember.
Ella drew Zeke's name. She got his baby Yoda...sorry Disney not gonna call him Grogru!
He also got these dart guns that cause serious pain when you are shot with them!
For the kids' Need Gift I got them each a new Bible!!! For Ella and Zeke I chose NIrV (New International reader Version). There Bibles also come with this elastic strap that holds them closed. We've had many Bibles get dropped and then fall open and the binding get ripped off in the process.
For Owen I picked this fun geometric pattern...the pattern is actually raised up.
When I saw this safari Bible I knew this was the one for Jack. There is even a leaf pattern on the side of the pages of the Bible. So cool!
All of the Bibles are soft cover and they seem really well made. I got them on Lifeway.com. The kids have been so responsible with using them. They like to take them to church in the box so they don't get damaged. We've also been doing family Bible time every night where we all read our own Bibles to ourselves. I know that us reading to the kids is good, but we also need to teach them how to get into the Word of God and learn for themselves.
For Owen's Wear Gift I got him a weighted blanket! He fell in love with Aunt Linda's weighted blanket when we were in Wyoming in July. On Amazon Prime day I found this one on sale. He loves it!
Jackson opened his Read Gift next. I got him two books I knew he wanted and then a book set I'm hoping that he'll like. It was recommended by a friend I follow on IG. It's called The Keeper of the Lost Cities. I was told it was very similar to Harry Potter, but with Elves and Goblins. He has only read about 1 chapter, but I'm hoping he'll get interested in it at one point.
Ella opened her Want Gift and she was SOOOOO happy to get her Journey Girl Kyra! Thankfully this gift wasn't spoiled back when it was first shipped to the house. The box it came in said Journey Girls on the OUTSIDE of the box!!! Thankfully I happened to open the front door and saw it before the kids did. How I don't know...since the kids are always opening the front door to either let Charlie in or out.
Zeke tearing into his Want Gift. It was his Hot Wheels Race Crate. This thing is so cool, it can be 3 different tracks and it all folds down into this nice crate that has a handle. Way to go Hot Wheels!!!
For Owen's Want Gift, we got his D&D: Castle Ravenloft game. I thought this was a bit expensive when I bought it, but it's HUGE and it's really great quality so I can see how it's worth it.
For Jack's Want Gift, we got him Ronin's Katana Sword from Avengers Endgames. What's funny is we are pretty hardcore Forged in Fire watchers and later in the day I saw Ella and Jack looking at the sword blade...which is plastic and they both said that it has a warp in it! :) :) :) As well as the sword we also got him a set of 20 Avengers mini figures Thanos and Hulk are so HUGE for mini figures!
Every year we always get a family gift which is typically a game. This year there were so many fun games I decided to get 4 games and have each of the kids open one.
Zeke opened Connect 4 Shots.
Jack opened the Harry Potter game that I originally had thought would be his Santa Gift.
Ella opened Clue and her face says it all! She's hilarious....she did not know what this was at all. Surprisingly, I had never even played Clue either. We ended up playing a few times over Christmas break and the kids LOVED it!
I didn't get a picture of Owen opening the last family game. I got Rumikub. I have loved that game for years. It was fun to teach the boys how to play over break.
For Zeke's Read Gift, I got him 3 Berenstain Bear books, Duck Still in the Truck and a Fun Farty Facts book.
For Ella's Read Gift she got 3 Berenstain Bear books and a Lisa Frank set that I found at Costco and almost died when I saw it!!! Lisa Frank is so 90's!!!
For Owen's Read Gift, I bought him the Amulet set that he wanted. Talk about spendy for graphic novels, but they really are nice quality and the story sounded interesting. I read a sample online, but I haven't sat down and read the whole series yet.
For Jack, Ella and Zeke I got them the same Wear Gift so I had them open their gift at the same time.
I got them all nice headphones. They have been using earbuds and I'm so sick of them breaking and getting all twisted up.
Once the kids were finished opening their gifts it was time for Michael and I to open ours.
From the kids I got 4 color changing tumblers and a set of super cute sheets. From Michael I got the most comfy jammies ever! They have this huge fuzzy neck that can be tighten and it comes all the way up over my nose. It's so perfect since my nose freezes when we watch shows at night. I'm always pulling my jammie top over my nose and huffing to make it warm! He also got me a National Park book that is SO awesome!!! I actually already put it to use to plan our 2 week road trip coming up in September 2021. My main bucket list item is to visit as many National Parks as possible. If everything goes well we will get to visit at least 8 parks on our road trip!!! He also got me a new knife set!
Funny story....he thought I asked for a new paring knife. He wanted to find a really nice one and as I mentioned before we are huge Forged in Fire fans so of course he wanted to find forged knives and not stamped ones. He found this German knife company that had forged knives and for just a paring knife it was going to be over $100. Through sales and then also signing up for an Amazon Credit Card and immediately canceling it he got it down to around $200 for a whole knife set! It evenincluded the knife block which sharpens your knives every time you take them out and put them back in the block. It was so thoughtful...the only thing was I never said I wanted a paring knife. What I actually said is I wanted a new peeler! I used to have a really nice Cutco peeler and it was the best peeler I'd ever had. I believe I took it with me to peel potatoes for the Grands Thanksgiving blessing back in 2019 and then forgot it at church, but I looked and it's not there. Who knows where it could have ended up!! I don't mind the new knives though the ones we had were from Sam's Club and were chipping. Once Michael heard that I really wanted a peeler hed issue me a coupon that was to be use to purchase a new Cutco peeler! :)
The kids got Michael two sets of grey dress socks.
Two different brands of orange golf balls.
I got Michael 2 packages of Molasses Chips from See's Candy!
I also got him an retractable extension cord, a tripod and a laser level that he can use indoors and outdoors.
Onto the stockings!
I always use the stockings as an excuse to bulk up our movie collection. We rarely watch DVD's at home since most of the movies we can stream on demand or from Disney+. It does come in handy though for when we take road trips. The kids can have a lot of options for watching movies in the van.
Owen got Spies in Disguise! He loves that movie! I also got each of the kids a card or dice game. Owen loves Catan so I thought it would be fun to have the dice version.
Jack loves the new Jumaji movies so I got him both. Jackson isn't super fond of games in general so I got him the game Blink because it's supposed to be over in a blink. It's a lot like the game Speed where you add cards on top of each other that are either matching or in the next sequential order. For Blink it's just a bunch of shapes that are different colors so you are matching them according to color, shape or number of shapes. It really is over in a Blink.
Zeke got the movie Onward and then two card games. Guess Who is just like having the board except you lay down a grid of cards. The nice thing is it's been updated so now there are 10 guys and 10 girls. Their style has also been updated to be more modern so the people have hair that's dyed and even guys have earrings. The Battleship card game is different from the original and it's fun. It's nice to have these game options where we can take them camping or on road trips and they don't take up a lot of space.
Ella got Frozen 2 and Skip-Bo. I think I used to play that game with my Gram, but now after playing it I think I was confusing it with Rack-O. Ella can sometimes not really get into games, but she really likes Skip-Bo so it was a happy accident!
As for Michael and my stockings....I got him 2 Reece's Snack mixes and then a magnetic hardware tray. He was so cute and totally forgot about my stocking....they are usually an afterthought to us. So he put $20 in mine which I was not unhappy about! :)
While I made a nice breakfast the kids had fun playing with their new toys. Zeke's marble run is the coolest! We've had marble runs in the past and they usually get played with for about 5 minutes and that's that. When I went looking for a marble run I knew I wasn't going to buy just any old marble run. The one that I found is a tournament one. It's so nice to actually have a purpose that you're trying to accomplish! It was a bit spendy, but actually all marble runs are more expensive than you'd think they'd be. I feel like it was totally worth it though!
It came with some pretty sweet looking marbles.
I love the racing color theme and it came with all sorts of stickers to make it look even more polished!
Jackson all ready for war!
Ella's Ultimate Barbie Closet had so many fun details. Cabinets to open to put her shoes in, a rotating closet like they have at the dry cleaners, a desk for her to sit with her laptop, a full length mirror and a stand that will hold Barbie up.
Owen jumped right into reading Amulet.
As Jack did with the latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book.
Ella started working on her Lisa Frank coloring books.
And even Michael put 3 of his gifts to use. He mounted the retractable extension cord and used it to plug in his saw. He also used his tripod to set up his laser level in order to put the leveling legs on the pool table and get it completely leveled.
It was a nice Christmas morning at home....after all that fun it was time to get ready to go to Ga-Ga & Pa's!
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