Christmas in California!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  We flew out to California to visit Jeff's family.  Jeff's sister and brother's family were all there too.  It was fun to have everyone together.

On Christmas Eve Sara and I were reading the kids a book before bed when Jeff heard some noise and a "ho! ho! ho!"  He thought it was us and came to tell us to be quiet because Matthew was asleep.  We told him it wasn't us.  Jeff went to investigate and came back and said Santa Clause is here in the house.  We sneaked half way down the stairs and took a peak in the living room.  The kids saw Santa with his bag of gifts.  They would only look for a couple of seconds at a time before hiding because they were so afraid Santa would see them.  Soon Santa took a couple bites of cookies and drank his glass of milk.  At that point we ushered the kids upstairs again.  As we were tucking the kids back in bed, we heard Santa again on the roof and some noises from the roof as he took off.  The kids were shocked and ecstatic that they saw Santa Clause.  It's a good thing they were super tired otherwise they would never have gone to bed.

The next morning we had a great time opening gifts. Santa must have thought we were good this year. Matthew got a book that will sing to him.

Rachel got My Little Ponies.

Tyler got a K'nex roller coaster.

Rachel also got Tinker Bell Barbies, light up shoes, pots and pans for her kitchen, princess stationary, and more!

Tyler got a REALLY BIG present.  He had the biggest present under the tree.

Inside that present was another present with LOTS of bows.

Inside that present was another present with one BIG bow.

Inside that present was another present.

He unwrapped that present and found his real gift:  a Leap Pad Ultra.

Now he doesn't have to steal his dad's tablet to play games.  He has his own to play on.  Tyler also got several Wii games, movies, and a remote control helicopter for Christmas.

Jeff's family always like to give funny gifts too.  Jeff got a very fitting holiday hat.

And we got Sara a really fun, cool present!

Jeff found the blow up dinosaur and had fun finding the gag gifts for his family.  Marc received a Washington Huskies T-shirt, Grandpa received a pretend pilot uniform, and Grandma received a Downton Abby puzzle they gave us last summer.  We put it together, glued it and re gifted it to them.

The kids enjoyed their gifts.  We built Tyler's K'nex roller coaster.

Everyone had fun playing with Tyler's remote control airplane.  I think I trusted him a little too much and stood a little too close.

The kids had a great Christmas in California!