Christmas Weekend

Wow. What a weekend. I've tried to keep it short and simple, but your know how it is when you have Christmas with multiple parties and 2 families to celebrate with. You end up with a lot of pics and a lot of fun. So, we'll just dive right into it.

Friday night we started off the festivities with Dodee and Papa's Christmas party. Dodee serves her famous breakfast for dinner, we hang out, and then Dodee and Papa (and others) shower everyone with gifts. It was a great night. But probably the most amazing thing that happened was that Jackson sat on my lap. That's a first for me and him. Except for when he was a baby and didn't know what was going on. But that doesn't count.

After the party we took the cousins home with us and had a sleep over. I think this is going to be a new tradition for us. You see, the adult Jensen's do breakfast at Market Street Grill the next morning, so we thought we would take the kids so the adults could actually go. And we had a grand time

The girls watched Polar Express upstairs. And keep in mind we started these movies after the party at 9:30 or so. And only 2 out of the 9 kids fell asleep during them. How do kids stay awake??

And the boys (and Oakley) watched Super 8 downstairs.


For our kid breakfast we made cake balls, thanks to the Cake Ball cooker Heidi gave me for my birthday.

After a few balls decorated Annie went straight to eating the sprinkles.

And my girls went straight to the batter.

Girls after my own heart.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and getting the final things ready for Christmas. Then we headed over to Jensen for a delicious Christmas Eve dinner. I had my first taste of a deep fried turkey and it was oh, so delicious. After a food and chit chat we headed to Temple Square to meet up with my parents.

We got a picture underneath my absolute favorite tree, the big red one.

And a pic of the kids by the yellow and orange one, my other favorite.

We headed home, got the kids to bed and got ready for Santa to come.

And come he did. He ate the kids treats they made and left a letter.

I'd have to say Santa did an amazing job...

We always make the kids come in our room and get a family pic. Not the best picture ever, but what can you do.

First up stockings.

I couldn't believe how excited the kids were for every little thing they found in there.

Then on to the presents.

And then the finale. Oakley's face says it all.

And the peace and quiet that followed Christmas is just what Trent and I asked Santa for.

After hanging out, playing with gifts, and relaxing, we headed out to Jensen's for Christmas breakfast.

And since it was Christmas we let Aiden have a block of cheese for breakfast.

Presents followed breakfast and once again we were extremely spoiled by everyone.

Next up we headed to Veigel's for Christmas dinner and more presents. Seriously, I can't believe how many gifts we opened. Everyone is so generous.

I guess Oliver didn't want to sit with all the cousins.

We finished the night off with tons of delicious food at my parents. Then headed home for some much needed sleep.

Phew.

We hope you all had as magical a Christmas as we did.

And here is to a great New Year.