Christmas

To no one's surprise, our kids were the first ones up on Christmas morning.

Why yes, it is still pitch black outside!

Elijah slept in a little longer before descending:

Santa brought a karaoke microphone for Elise!

Everyone else in the house got to wake up to some Taylor Swift karaoke:

Some gems and weapons for Aaron:

Tiny trucks and a Burger King coupon for Elijah!

Christmas hugs for Catherine from Uncle Bryan:

Christmas morning fun!

Elijah opening his gift from us:

Marshmallows and a picture of the new foam blocks Jon put together.

Grandma & Grandpa gave Catherine this Luna books:

Luna is her nickname, plus the girl in the book is blond and blue-eyed.

But it turns out this "brand new" book Grandma ordered...

...was not so new after all! 

Or Catherine's new name is actually Dahlia.

Elise's very exciting gift:

A new iPad!

She saved up for this for a LOOONG time!

We just paid for the last little bit.

Aaron got some throwing axes from Catherine:

Seth got some pajama pants from Elise:

Breydon and Aaron heading out to dig the gems from Aaron's kit:

Lexi decides to join the fun:

Apparently this gem dig was extremely interesting!

Almost as interesting as watching Elijah play on an iPad:

Decorating Christmas ornaments with Grandpa:

Aren't we so kind to give Dad a gift that requires him to do more work?

Seth played Disney trivia with the Disney nerds (Kofords and Bosworths):

Somehow he managed to win??

No sense was made.

We decided we needed to watch A Christmas Story in honor of Jon's shirt.

Around that time Elijah started not feeling great.

Thankfully we knew what was coming and had a bowl ready.

He vomited, then fell asleep on the couch:

So much for my hope that it was somehow a fluke and no one else would get sick...

Catherine has acquired a Lexi:

Catherine is at the age where she loves little ones and they love her.

More Grandpa fun: air brush tattoos!

Catherine went for the arm tattoo:

A very impressive set of tats:

Elijah was not up for tattoos.

He was up for terrifying stair acrobatics, though:

Wood stairs, wood floors, metal railings...

What could go wrong?

Grandpa was a busy man on Christmas! 

Playing Hues & Clues with all the grandkids

After the littles went to bed, it was time for games with the adults!

We played a hilarious game of Codenames in which I doubted Seth and was proved very wrong.

I also want to always play with Brian now because he's hilarious:

Despite the barfing, it was such a nice Christmas. We kept the gifts few and simple, so there wasn't too much chaos. And mostly everyone was just happy to be with family. I'm so glad we could all be together for Christmas!