Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas with just our family!  The kids woke up a little earlier than usual - at 7:30.  We told them that we needed half an hour to get ready - we were tired from the festivities of Christmas Eve! Once we were ready, we began our Christmas day traditions.  

First, the kids join us downstairs to get their stockings which they bring into the family room.

After stockings, we eat our traditional pigs in blankets for breakfast - they are eaten up quickly in our house!

Once breakfast is over, the present opening begins!  We each open a present at a time, starting from youngest to oldest and repeating until we're done.  This year was especially fun for the kids as they really got into buying each other presents.

Parker was excited that I took note of him wanting a container of his very own cheese balls!

Parker picked these mustache glasses for Bryant - he's way into mustaches right now.

Parker's big present was a new baseball bat - he can't wait to get out and use it!

Erin and Bryant received money to get iPhones

 Erin got the backpack she had asked for.  It is very well laid out for college students with laptops - and it's cute, too!

Rick and I got presents, too, but we are always the ones taking the pictures and are rarely in them.  Let me just say that I have an amazing husband who never fails to make me feel special - especially at Christmas time.  I also have very thoughtful children who really worked hard to pick great presents to give this year.  I was really surprised to receive a black skirt from Parker - he had watched me look at it one day in the store and he took Rick back to get it for me!  I can't believe he could tell him where in the women's section it would be. That's the kind of thought they all put into their gift giving this year! 

Christmas Eve

I'm so grateful for traditions!  As the kids get older, they get fairly adamant about the things we do for the holidays.  This year, I thought maybe we should go to Knott's Berry Farm on Christmas Eve, but I was quickly out-voted so that we could keep up our traditions.  Instead of roller coasters, we had lots of cousin bonding time and plenty of yummy food to eat!  

In the early afternoon the "Other Chase's" arrived and we spent a few hours running last minute errands and eating lunch at a favorite Mexican restaurant.  Once we got home, there was just enough time to finish preparations for our traditional ham dinner.  As usual, Dee was with us to celebrate.

After dinner, we headed to a neighborhood nearby that puts on an awesome synchronized light show.  It was so packed with cars, that we parked close by and walked through the display.  We are thankful for the work that went in to the show!

As we were walking through the light display, we almost had an accident.  Cali got spooked by a couple of barking dogs, pulled out of her collar, and ran into the street right in front of some cars.  Kelly screamed and ran out after her.  They both just missed getting hit!  Next year we'll have to be more careful.

Once we got  back to our house, we had a Christmas Eve devotional led by Rick and then it was time for presents!  Sue and Jerry were able to share the evening with us via FaceTime.

The cousins in their new pajamas (thank you Grandma Sharrid for making the kids their annual pjs).

The kids had so much fun buying presents for each other!  Parker picked out this Zelda logo t-shirt for Elizabeth - it was a major hit! 

Rick had some special clown targets made for Bobby (he has a serious clown phobia).

My favorite time of Christmas Eve is always after all the kids are in bed, the present and stocking are under the tree, and Christmas music is playing softly in the house.  It's the time when I feel the spirit of Christmas the most.  What a blessing the birth of our Savior was to the world!

Deck the halls!

It was so much fun having Erin home for Thanksgiving!  Her last request was to decorate the Christmas tree. Normally I spend a few hours prepping the tree - setting it up, fluffing it out, and putting the garland on.  This year there wasn't time to get that done, so we just unwrapped our special ornaments and put those on the tree - I followed up with the balls and garland later.  I'm so glad that we were able to do some of the decorating with Erin!

The ornaments unwrapped and ready to go on the tree - my favorite ornament is Cinderella's coach

All the kids with our animals - Erin's kitten, Amber, is our latest addition

The finished product!