Christmas Morning 2024!

Christmas morning the kids woke up at 7am and started to head down. 

I stopped them so I could get our traditional Christmas morning stairs picture. 

Michael still wasn't feeling well. He actually slept on the couch all night so he was already downstairs. 

Jack and Zeke distributed all the gifts to everyone. After wrapped the kids gifts I don't let them touch or move them. They also aren't allow to guess what they are. Jack's big gift was behind the tree with Michael's big gift and when he got home after I wrapped them he was like...I wonder what that is! 

I still have the kids pick out their very own wrapping paper so they know which gifts are theirs. This year Zeke picked Minecraft paper...so festive! :) The gifts that weren't wrapped in their paper were the family game gifts. I finally ended up placing an order with Temu...I was super skeptical at first, but they've been great. I ordered two different kinds of craft paper to wrap gifts in and it was such nice paper! I also got ribbon and gift tag stickers. 

Daddy didn't even have to move from his spot where he slept! 

Every December I work on my Christmas puzzles, but this year I couldn't work on them until we were finished with school on the 20th. Jack uses the coffee table as his work space for school so that would have caused issues. 

We open gifts youngest to oldest. Zeke was so happy to get his LEGO set he wanted. 

This year for Ella she mainly wanted clothes so instead of buying her a bunch of stuff she would end up not liking or it wouldn't be the right size she went shopping with me for her Christmas gifts. It was actually the first time she joined me and Ga-Ga for Black Friday shopping. It was honestly the best thing...she got things she liked and I got to spend a whole day with my mom and my daughter shopping. Here is one of the sweatshirts that she picked out at Fred Meyer's. 

She also got this cropped sweater at Walmart. She will be wearing a tank top underneath it so it doesn't show her stomach. 

Don't let his lack of smile fool you....he was thrilled with his guitar! 

Jack drew Owen's name this year...he got Owen a D&D book that's been on his Amazon wish list for a while. 

Ella drew Zeke's name...She bought him the two LEGO cars to add to his collection. 

Zeke drew Ella's name...she wanted workout stuff, but Zeke didn't want to buy her that so I told him how she had mentioned wanting more black and white nail dashes so he got her those instead. 

Daddy picked out a nice flannel jacket for Jackson. He's all about the flannel right now. 

We got Owen the Imperial Star Destroyer from his wish list. 

The kids got me jammies, slippers and fuzzy socks. They also learned a valuable lesson about not trusting what the hanger says and always looking at the actual tag on the clothes. One pairs of pajama pants they got me were large instead of medium. It was okay I just returned them. 

The kids got Daddy bright orange golf balls...this is a standard gift for him every year.

Zeke wanted the Nintendo Switch Sports game, but it doesn't have a cartridge you just download it so I had to make up a certificate for him. The whole time he was opening his gift he was like....is there anything in here?

A few of Ella's gifts she didn't know about. This was one of those. She wanted a mirror that lights up and has magnification so she can see better when putting on her makeup. This was actually the first Christmas gift I bought way back on Prime day in October. 

In the years passed we've done the gifts with the kids where they get something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read. Then when we had the Cabin Christmas in 2022 we only got the kids one gift since the cabin was the gift. Since then we've kind of assigned the kids a limit moneywise for gifts. Since Jack wanted a guitar you can imagine that used up most of his money so his other gifts from us were clothes. I found this really nice flannel on Amazon. It's thick and really good quality. 

I got Owen the light set to go with his LEGO Star Destroyer. After he put it together though he realized in order to add the lights you have to disassemble the set a bit and he wasn't interested in doing that. I returned this light set and was able to buy him a really cool bookshelf for his room instead. 

The kids also got me a new addition to my Christmas Village...a bookstore with a coffee shop!!! 

I got Michael some really cool golf tees. 

Zeke also got a flannel coat. 

Ella's favorite gift was her white Adidas shoes! She is militant about keeping them clean! She was also freaked out when she opened the box because I said something like what if I just kept the box and returned the shoes. She then opened the box and sitting on top were new tanks tops that she wanted, but I just stuffed them in there on top of the shoes. She was so relieved when she found the shoes.  

Owen drew Jack's name and he got him 3 more flannels. 

I got Michael 6 golf gloves. 

He got me my favorite gift of the year! These real wool slippers are the best thing ever. My feet are always ice cold no matter what I do. Now I wear the slippers the kids got me around the house during the day and then at night after my shower I slip into these and when I get to bed my feet aren't freezing. The best gift ever!!! 

Ella found a pair of jeans she likes at Kohl's. I also bought her another pair of jammies...she wanted a red flannel pair so that was a surprise to her. 

I found this shirt on clearance online at Old Navy. Jack loves red, white and blue! 

Each of the kids opened one family game gift. I have had this Grandpa Beck's game on my Amazon wish list for a long time. We played it over Christmas break and it's super easy, fun and really beautiful! 

Everything Michael got me was geared towards keeping me warm. He got me this hat, scarf and glove set and then he got me my second favorite gift...a heated vest! This thing is awesome! It actually keeps me so warm without even turning it on. He got me it because we are going over to Leavenworth with Michael and Robin in January and he doesn't want me to freeze. 

The kids also picked out new shirts for Daddy.

The family game Zeke opened was Raccoon Tycoon and oh my goodness this is such a cute game. Very simple once you watch a video online for how to play it and so clever with many different ways to win. We've really enjoyed it! 

Ella opened Moose Match Mayhem...it's from the creators of Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. It's a really easy, fun game too!  

Jack opened Throw Throw Burrito. We haven't played this one as a family yet, but I have seen Jack and Zeke throwing the squishy burritos at each other. 

I got Owen two new shirts from Old Navy and PTL he actually liked them. 

The last gift was Michael's big gift. Most of the gifts I ordered online I had sent to Ga-Ga & Pa's because I didn't want the kids to see them. They kept all the gifts until Sunday, December 8th. That was the Sunday the kids left church and drove down to Ga-Ga & Pa's to spend two nights with them. After church once the kids drove away I pulled the van up to Pa's Jeep and then we unloaded the gifts from his car into ours. I had to have Michael stay in the car since this big one was his gift. It was so heavy and awkward I wasn't sure how I was going to get it inside without his help, but I knew I'd figure it out. The next day while Michael was at work I carefully took it out of the van and had to walk it back and forth to get it into the house. After I got it wrapped I had to literally pull the tree away from the wall and put the gift back there and push the tree back in place. Michael kept trying to figure out what I got him, but he never guessed it. 

 

New cornhole boards! 

Years ago Michael made a beautiful set out of leftover lumber. He painted them Seahawk colors and it had the Seattle city skyline on them. They were really awesome, but overtime they fell apart. I figured he needed to new set especially since he likes to have a cornhole tournament at his company bbq we host in August. I was so excited that I actually surprised him! 

Next up was stockings. Each of the kids got candy and then a small gift. Owen got a mini Simon type game, Jack got a rechargeable guitar tuner, Ella got 2 more sets of nails and a fake nose ring and Zeke got a handheld fidget game. 

 

My stocking was stuffed full of my favorite Ghirardelli chocolates. Michael had 2 Paydays, a cool electrical tool where you plug it into the outlet and it will tell you if it's hooked up correctly and then two of those tools you can use when you need to get the outline of a weird shape like around a door casing when you're laying wood flooring.

After opening presents I popped the cinnamon rolls that Kim made us in the oven for breakfast. That was the nicest gift since it made the morning so smooth with trying to get ready to go to Ga-Ga & Pa's. Unfortunately Michael was not feeling up to joining us. He was wiped out and most definitely didn't want to get anyone else sick so for the first time ever he missed Christmas day! :(