Christmas morning we were up at 6:00 and excited to see what Santa had brought for us. Dad went down first to take a few pictures before the chaos began. Santa leaves all of our presents by our stockings, and we put our family gifts under the tree.
The kids ran down the stairs youngest to oldest.
The boys found their bows and arrows first.
And Brielle's wish came true when she opened her new phone.
The boys big gift was a race track that they can run with their phones, iPods or iPads.
Brooke was a little harder this year because she really didn't have that one thing she wanted. She was excited about her Legos and art supplies though.
Light Sabers for all the boys.
Charles and I scored with new Beats.
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| The kids got these cute personalized M&Ms. |
Once our Santa gifts had all been ripped through we took a minute to play before moving on.
Then it was time for my very most favorite part of Christmas morning. The family gifts. My kids love love love picking out things for each other and for us. They really truly are more excited to give the things they picked out than opening gifts themselves. Especially the things they picked out for dad.
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| Jacob gave Caleb some Nerf accessories. |
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| A high five for dad's new Broncos license plate holder. |
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| A new Broncos football. |
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| Some new GoPro stuff from Brooke. |
Things started to wind down. We still had one big present for each kid, and there was one from Brielle to Charles, and one from Jacob to me. Charles and I argued about who got to go last. I swore Brielle's was the best, he felt that way about Jacob's. So I gave in and he opened his from Brielle first. She had made him a new BBQ apron completely by herself. She did such a great job!
Then it was my turn. Jacob had made the decision to sell his "iPod", which was Charles' old iPhone, in order the get a credit to put towards a new rose gold iPhone 6s for me. What an awesome kid! Apparently it was pretty tough on him. Tears and all, but he really wanted to do it. I sure love that kid. And he lucked out and got my old phone, which is newer than his old one anyway.
When everything else was open, we cleared the floor and finally gave the kids the presents we had been dying to give them! We had been keeping this secret from them since April. Ahhh!!!
We gave each kid a new suitcase and inside, right on the top was the note telling them we were headed to Costa Rica!
The suitcases were also full of presents; summer clothes, new swimsuits, Bose headphones, camelbak backpacks, toys for the plane, and even some Bronco's gear. They were pretty dang excited.
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| Star Wars magnets |
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| Headphones. |
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| More headphones. |
It was a super awesome Christmas morning. I was sad it was over, but now we had a fun vacation to look forward to!
After presents we had breakfast, picked up the house a little, and played with our new toys. Grandma and Grandpa Balch came up and we had a very nice prime rib dinner. Then we watched a movie and played with the new race track. That thing is pretty dang cool.
Christmas is by far my very favorite holiday. Can't wait until next year!!