A Toronto Family Christmas

CHRISTMAS EVE:
Maddie has become OBSESSED with Care Bears as of late. This is her infamous "Good Luck" Bear that tends to follow her everywhere. During the day she carries on conversations with the bear, makes beds and food for him, you name it.

Do you think this is why Adam is by far their favorite Uncle?

(don't worry Ben, Tyler, and Brett....the kids still love you too!)

Christmas this year was much different than in years past. It was the first time in our six year marriage that we pretty much just stayed at home for the Holidays. With both of our families living in the East Valley, we normally find ourselves dashing from one house to the other for the Holidays and come home exhausted with even more exhausted kids.

With Eli being born three days before Christmas, we had both families over to our house instead and I have to admit it was so nice to be home to relax. On Christmas Eve, the Toronto family brought us a yummy dinner and the kids played with their Aunts and Uncles. Then we did our yearly tradition of opening up new pajamas and slippers. Maddie loved her Tinkerbell slippers and still wants to wear her pink and brown heart pajamas every night to bed and Robby loves his Cars jammies and Spiderman slippers. Then it was off to bed with all of us dreaming about Christmas morning and Santa coming to visit our house. Maddie told everyone that Santa was going to come through our front door to bring us presents and candy (we don't have a chimney) :)

Robby sure loves his "Papa" Toronto! Grandpa is always letting Robby climb all over him.Attack of Uncle Adam by both kids....another example of why they love him so much!

Aunt Abby holding our precious little Eli

CHRISTMAS MORNING: Maddie came in our room a little after 7am on Christmas Day and announced that it was time to see if Santa was at our house. When she found out we weren't going downstairs until Robby was awake, she promptly went in and woke him up. Unfortunately he wasn't too happy about getting up (he is a SLEEPER and will sleep in until 8:30-9am most mornings). Eventually we all made our pilgrimage downstairs to the presents. Maddie actually thought that Santa would be there waiting for us, so she was momentarily confused to not see the Jolly Man himself.

We had a great time opening up Santa gifts and eating breakfast before Jesse took off for his parents house. His brother, Brett, called from his mission in the morning so he went over to talk to him. While he was gone, my parents, brother and Uncle Jeff came over to keep me company with the three kids. Maddie and Robby LOVED all the attention they received from them.

Uncle Jeff (my dad's brother) with Baby Eli. He comes every year and stays for Christmas with my parents. I have so many great memories of him at Christmas. He used to help us put together our new toys and was always willing to jump in and play with us!

When Jesse got back from talking to Brett, he decided to practice some wrestling maneuvers with my brother Ben. It was pretty funny to see them rolling around on the ground together. Robby and Maddie got a kick out of it as well, except Robby started to get scared after a few minutes of watching this. He looked like he was going to cry and kept saying "daddy?" Finally they stopped and Robby went over to his daddy and gave him a big hug. He was so concerned that his daddy might be hurt.

After my parents left, Jesse's family headed over to our house so that our kids could open up presents from them. Robby fell in love with his new train set and Maddie loved getting more Care Bears. It was fun to see his family again and spend more time with Adam (he lives in Boston). We had the kids open up a few presents from us as well, before it was nap time. While they were sleeping Jesse and I opened presents from each other.

Christmas evening my family all headed over to our house for dinner. It was so fun to have my parents, Ben, and Lori and Tyler over with my sweet niece, Kaylin. We had some yummy food and then proceeded to open up presents with my family. It was a little chaotic with all the gifts being opened, but so much fun. Robby was totally present-ed (not sure if that is a word or not) out by this point and wouldn't open up a single gift. He was still completely obsessed with his train set from Aunt Esther earlier that day. I was so blessed to have my Mom over to help me a lot during the first week that Eli was born. She is an amazing woman, and oh so patient with my kids. She sat and played with them, so they wouldn't feel ousted by their baby brother.