Christmas Eve Festivities

It was a long day for the boys (having to wait ALL day to open their Christmas presents) but Daddy came to the rescue when he got the idea to build a fort out of the remaining snow.  They used a cooler to pack the snow in and made a great outside entertainment to distract themselves.

I was so grateful for this because it got the boys out of the house.  They get way to caught up in electronics.  I am thankful for David's example of moving around and willingness to work (which he later showed them by shoveling our neighbor's walkway).

After dinner I read them a Christmas book. This years was Glenn Beck's, The Snow Angel.  Every year I buy a new book and when I saw that Glenny boy had a new kids book, I bought it right away (that was a few months ago)!  But on to what the boys thought was important...the gifts!  I love this picture above and I know I have said this before, but I love how excited each child gets over their brother's gifts.  Look at Brigham's face waiting for Levi to open up his gift!

Hyrum was more than a little excited about his Minecraft magnents from Poppy and Nanny.  He has just now started to play on Minecraft so this is extra fun for him.  For the longest time he just watched his brothers but we felt he could handle building stuff on Minecraft.

Brigham got lots of Sonic the Hedgehog stuff and this was probably his favorite of the night.  It was from Poppy and MeMaw.  That was the theme:  Brigham-Sonic, Levi-books, and Hyrum-anything Mario Brothers.

This picture was taken right after they opened up two Xbox 360 games.  This was THE FAVORITE of the night.  They were so very excited about finally getting an Xbox.  David was pretty excited too :)  He has wanted one since we first got married.  Thanks to Uncle Chuck, it finally happened this year!

I love this picture!  Beside that David is so cute :) I love his smile in it.  He was laughing pretty hard when he opened up this gift from Levi.  We don't have cable so we haven't watched a full episode but from what we have seen on YouTube, Duck Dynasty is right up mine and David's alley.

This was one of my gifts from Mom and Dad.  I had to take a picture because this makes me think of my childhood.  The comment made on this gift is obviously because of my non-existent wrapping skills but it made me think back to younger years because it really does describe me.  I have been like this for as long as I can remember... if I can't make something PERFECTLY then I make it as crappy as possible!  I can remember when I was a youth in church and Rose (my leader at the time) was having us girls decorate our camp t-shirts.  I remember starting off nicely...but then I messed up and, well, paint went flying!  The t-shirt that started off nicely turned into a work of insane art, as I'm sure I came off as wanting to do that all along.  I'm even that way in pictures.  If I look horrible, I tend to almost always make a face.  As if people will focus on my silly expression rather than me not fixing my hair or not having on make up.  Those darn insecurities!

This was the gift that I was probably most grateful for...Levi's new OU hoodie.  The one of the right has been worn for way too many years.  So I gladly asked him if he was ready for me to throw the old one away.  I shouldn't have been surprised when he insisted on keeping it.  He is my sentimental child.  But I am still grateful MeMaw and Poppy sent it because at least the old raggedy one can just stay in his closet!

I am truly grateful for Uncle Bubba and Hannah, Uncle Chuck, Mom and Dad, as well as Grandma and Grandpa for all the presents that made the boy's night so very special.

So, it was a great day.  Tomorrow I want us to focus more on Christ.  It has always been tradition on my side of the family to open gifts on Christmas Eve but I appreciate it much more as an adult because I love that we can separate the gifts from the celebration of Christ's birth.  Sure, they get presents from Santa tomorrow but it isn't much and it is done in the morning so we can focus the rest of the day on what is important, or at least we try.  It is hard to compete with all the new stuff but I do pull them away from it now and then throughout the day to refocus.  Lets hope for success tomorrow!