Nathan, Sarah and I were one team. Rachel, Anna and Darik were another and Jason, Jaron and Caleb made up the third team. We had a good time wandering around Wal-Mart carefully choosing our gifts for each other while trying to avoid the other teams. The great news is that after all that work, and keeping secrets for three whole days, everyone liked what they received. It seems our youngest two were worn out from keeping the moving secret so they really struggled with not spilling the beans about what gifts they had purchased.
Monday we had our Christmas dinner, usually done on Christmas day, and spent the day with running a few errands and hanging out. Christmas morning was a nice mixture of opening presents and enjoying the gifts received. Santa brought the kids some pretty cool toys. He knew about the move to Texas and all the long hours to be spent in a car or hotel. He went a little overboard this year and brought Rachel, Nathan and Anna iPod touches, Jaron and Darik got Nintendo 3DS XL's and Caleb and Sarah each got an Innotab. They were so great for living in a half-packed and fully-packed house for two days and then for all the adventure that followed.
Christmas Eve.
Waiting to come downstairs Christmas morning.
Let's get this party started with a Christmas morning hug.
Reading Santa's instructions to open his gifts last.
Mine and Jason's gifts to each other.
The Grandparents on both side gave the kids things that would travel/pack well. Gramma and Grampa Ski gave them each gift cards to the movies. Gramma and Grampa Lindh gave two boxes full of activities for the van. Both gifts were greatly loved and appreciated. We used the certificates to go to the movies on Christmas day and the kids have gotten pretty good at knitting hats (an activity from the box) and had fun coloring and playing with the small travel toys they received. Thanks to all for the wonderful gifts.
Bill and Linda got Jason some socks that he loves and a new set of ratcheting screwdrivers that drive both ways (which was very useful in pulling some things apart in preparation for the move). They gave me a beautiful scarf that I will not be able to use anytime soon because Sarah fell in love with it. I also got a new candle to warm our new home with.
I forgot to take a picture of a beautiful picture that Nicci and Joseph made for us that got packed the next day. Thank you to all for your kindness and thoughtfulness. The kids didn't get any individual gifts from us, we just gave them some new Wii games to play together.
We saw Rise of the Guardians Christmas day and then returned to take down the tree and all decorations in preparation for the packers to arrive on Wednesday morning. But I'm including a short video of the kids opening their gifts from Santa.
No comments:
Post a Comment