Christmas Morning!

Christmas morning was so much fun! The girls are at such a fun age and having them all so close together and into the same things just makes life a party! My mom was amazing (of course) and bought all of the girls presents (I told her what to buy) and wrapped everything and had it all ready for us so we wouldn't have to worry about anything! She even put the barbie doll house that she and my dad got the girls for Christmas (it took over 2 hours!) together. She was such a big help since Josh was still not fully recovered and was trying to catch up on work as well as study for his SHRM test for work.

Christmas Eve day we have a tradition of going out to breakfast as a family (Josh's family did this all growing up and we have done it ever since we have been married). It is such a fun tradition because we do not go out to eat very often as a family and we almost never go out for breakfast. This is a fun treat for all of us. Josh had big plans of taking the girls to breakfast and then to a movie that afternoon (I wanted to go so bad!!) and then he had bought a ham and all of the fixings for a nice Christmas Eve dinner that night. Then we planned on talking about the Christmas story and focusing on our Savior and opening pajamas! We were all excited for our big meal since Thanksgiving was hindered a bit. Come to find out that Christmas Eve morning Josh woke up incredibly sick. He had caught the 24 hour flu! Poor guy! He felt awful...he never gets sick too! He couldn't take the girls to breakfast or the movie (they went to a movie a few days later to make up for it) and we definitely did not get to have our nice Christmas Eve dinner (I think this year we just weren't supposed to have nice Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners because something happened every time we tried! hahaha).

Josh stayed in bed most of the day and didn't show any signs of improvement. Of course I still wasn't doing well, so I was up with the girls in the morning until the afternoon and then he got up (I told him to go back to bed) and he stayed with the girls while I took a nap. I felt bad that he was not in bed and not resting and he just said that I felt awful too and that we would both just take turns. He really is so unselfish! He cares so much about his family (and especially me!) that he will push through and put everyone else first before himself. He really does amaze me and I learn so much from him continually. It has been hard for me to see him have to do so much for me when I was so active before my leg issue. He just keeps going with a smile and I just can't wait until I can pull my weight a bit more!

As a side note...when he broke his collarbone he said the worst was knowing how much we needed him at home and that now he had done something "stupid" (although he wasn't trying to) and now made things so much harder. He was constantly asking about me while he was recovering from his collarbone and I was constantly asking about him. We really were both so concerned for the other that is was almost easy to push through our own pain because we wanted the other to have a break. If this is any sign for the future of old age to come I think we'll be a great team...let's just hope we don't have to deal with anything like this again! hee hee

So even though the day was slow we had a nice Christmas Eve with the girls and they really liked reading the Christmas story and talking about our Savior. They were thrilled with their new pajamas and were just giddy going to bed. We made sure and left out a cookie and milk with a note from the girls for Santa by the front door and they went off to bed. Ally said that she heard his jingle bells during the night but that she stayed in bed. Of course after hearing that a couple of times Megan saud the same thing. She is such a copy cat these days! Ally has one of the most tender hearts. In her prayers that night she told HEavenly Father that she was excited for the next day but knew that the real reason we celebrate Christmas was for Jesus. It was so cute (she even said it a couple of times Christmas day too!).

Josh and I worked together to get everything under the tree (thank goodness it was all ready!) and then we went to bed. Josh still did not feel well and so I prayed that he could feel better in the morning so the girls could have at least one parent who wasn't sick! The Lord was kind to us and when the girls came in on Christmas morning (I think it was around 7am/7:30am) Josh felt much better!! He went downstairs to see if Santa had really come and the girls waited at the top of the stairs. They were SO excited. After he had the camera ready and I had made it downstairs we told the girls they could run down and see what Santa had brought them. They were all so much fun to watch. I could do that every day! Ally was SO excited that Santa had brought her oranges in her stocking!!! That's how great the kids are. They get excited over the littlest things! We watched them open everything in and around their stocking and then Josh and I opened ours (we really didn't get each other anything this year because we had both had surgery and we were planning for the expenses of little Jake's arrival). My parents had given us an early Christmas and birthday present in October- a 52 inch flat screen TV! That was what our gifts to each other really were as well (since we pitched in some money), so even though we didn't have much for Christmas morning we had an awesome TV that we have been enjoying for a couple of months in the other room and that was just perfect for us! Also, we had bought new shelves for our storage room which were not cheap the month before and we attributed that towards our Christmas as well. It was great.

Most of the girls gifts this year were combined gifts, but they each had something special of their own. In addition to more pajamas and coloring books and games Ally got an easy-bake oven. Annalise opened a cool cash register and Megan received a new bike! The one she had been using was the one we bought for Ally when she was 2 and it broke, so she was really excited to have a new one. After all of the presents were opened we told the girls that we thought 2 were missing. One from us and one from Grandma and Granddad Nixon. Josh got the gifts ready upstairs and the girls ran up to find 2 new doll houses! One was for mini dolls with the cute little furniture (my friend had given me hers!) and a huge 3+ foot barbie doll house! They were so cute when they saw these and have just loved playing with them! They had opened a bunch of "little dolls" earlier and Ally had said that they didn't have a house for them. It was fun when she realized that now they did!

Josh's parents bought everyone the same gift this year. It was a gift for the whole family and it has been so awesome! They gave us Rockband 2 with the Beatles to go with it! We have had a blast playing it. I lay on the couch and watch Josh and he goes crazy with the guitar. Sometimes if I am feeling okay he'll pull out the microphone and I'll sing along. It has been awesome. Since now all of his siblings have it we will connect with them online and play with them all while skypeing so we can see them and chat...it's a great time.

One of the neat things was that Ally had gifts that she had picked out at her school store for each of us. We had given her a little money to spend on each member of her family and when she bought them she put them under the tree. It about killed her to have to wait until Christmas morning for us to open them. As soon as we were done with the stockings that was the first things she wanted to do. She found all of her gifts under the tree and gave them all out to everyone. We all opened them one at a time and I think she was more excited to see us open what she had bought for us than anything else. It was so sweet and I loved that giving meant so much more than receiving. She said at first she was sad that she didn't get to pick something out from the school store for her, but that she then was just excited for what she had bought all of us. She gave Annalise and Megan 2 pretty rings that they loved. She gave Josh a pen that has a tape measure on it...she just thought it was so cool and a perfect gift for a dad. I think she was the most excited for my gift. She kept saying "mom, you're going to love this!" It was adorable. She gave me heart earrings for pierced ears!! hahaha She just thought it was so cool that I had pierced ears and she had bought me real earrings to wear! I just loved it and seeing her excitement was a blessing to me; it just warmed my heart.

Anyway, the rest of the day was chill and relaxed. The girls were all really excited to eat their new cereals from their stockings and play with their new toys. Next year will be so different adding a little boy to the mix!