Last Tuesday X’s musical troupe, Hit the Road, performed their Christmas show at Six Flags.

X had a solo singing part of “I ain’t gettin’ nothin for Christmas”.

She did fantastic!

As you can see, she really enjoyed herself. Like any child, she pouts and complains about practicing her routine and solo parts but once she’s there-actually doing it-she loves it.

Saturday morning we I got up bright and early in order to go day-after-Christmas shopping at Target. I woke everyone else up and drug them with me.

Sadly we missed getting any lights at 50% off….they were completely gone by the time we got there. We did get all new decor for the tree next year though.

X picked out a few DS games with some birthday money she had, and I picked up 4 super cute Valentine’s Day plates that I can’t wait to use.

It was actually one of the most pleasant shopping trips I’ve ever taken with the kids. We weren’t on a schedule, we had nowhere to be, and the kids didn’t feel the need to ask for everything they saw.

As soon as we got home X was totally engrossed with Super Mario Bros on her DS.

As E became engrossed in some video games of his own.

Buzz and Woody got some more play time in.

I can’t look at these toys and not picture them coming to life after I leave the room.

I’m pretty sure Princess hates us.

We also played some Wii Family Game Night that we had gotten for Christmas. Ryan beat me in Connect 4 but I totally won every game of Battleship. It rocked.

During E’s nap, Ryan (with some help from our wonderful neighbor, Russ) put the kid’s trampoline together.

The trampoline was a gift from Great Grandma Van De Water (Ryan’s Grandmother).

Based on hours of use, it is in a head to head competition with the Nintendo DS for most used Christmas gift.

Yes! We did put a net up around it (in case you were concerned with the above picture.) Which is good because E would have bounced off and broken his neck by now if it wasn’t there.

On Sunday morning (since Chruch services were canceled because of the holidays) we had some Medical Walgreens friends over for brunch. The kids jumped on the trampoline for almost 2 hours.

And after that we went to a 1 yr old birthday party for our friend’s Mario & Ginger’s foster son.

Stinkin’ adorable kid.

Seems like just yesterday we were celebrating E’s 1st Birthday….now look how big he is!

Quite mischievous as well.

You can look forward to a new Buzz Lightyear picture every day this week!

I know for most people the Christmas season is packed solid with activities, parties, and events.

Thankfully, it’s never like that for us.

With no family anywhere near us we have nowhere else to be besides home. And that is exactly how we spent the rest of Christmas: at home relaxing. Everyone stayed in their pajamas (or changed into pajama like clothes after showers).

We snowboarded on the new Wii Fit board (that I got Ryan).

Woody took a couple rides on Princess as well as down the handrail of the staircase numerous times.

Buzz got some playtime in too.

X and I read a chapter of Harry Potter: The Sorcerer’s Stone, played a game of Apples to Apples Jr, and started up her DS games while E took a 2.5 hr nap.

After my nap (too much relaxation made me hit the wall faster on this first day off work) I made salmon for dinner along with Ry-friendly mac-n-cheese. I was too lazy to set the dining room table up so I made our regular table up fancy to make it more memorable for the kids.

After eating we listened (and the kids sang along) to Grandma Got Ran Over By a Reindeer and Santa Claus is Coming to Town (to which X also imports “mommy and daddy” into the lyrics to replace “Santa Claus).

Ryan and I fell asleep on the couch around 8 and the kids had to wake us up so that we could put them to bed.

At 7:40 I heard the pitter patter of little feet into the upstairs playroom (where we were sleeping on the couches).

Then I heard them leave the room and head downstairs.

Soon to ask each other, “Where are they?”

Apparently they were too distracted by the gifts under the tree to notice us sleeping on the couches.

After getting some coffee, cereal in bags, and a fresh memory card we were set to open presents.

Keeping with our tradition, we only bought the kids 3 gifts this year (to represent the 3 gifts the Wise Men gave to Jesus).

X’s first gift was a jewelry box full of new jewelry.

E was super excited to see a Buzz Lightyear.

And even more excited to see a Woody on a the opposite side.

Her second gift was a super comfortable {and hot pink} GAP jogging suit. If I could have found a matching one for me I would have bought it in a heartbeat.

I noticed as X unwrapped her 3rd gift that it wasn’t in the “right wrapping paper” (since I wrapped both Grandmas’ gifts and our own gifts I had to designate wrapping paper to keep things straight….obviously it didn’t work too well).

Turns out that she opened one of Grandma Newcom’s gifts {a super cute monogrammed duffle bag from PotteryBarn Kids}.  I quickly halted the present opening so we could figure out what happened to the 3rd gift.

X patiently waited while Ryan and I (in frustrated tones) discussed in secret code what the present was {Nintendo DSi}, who wrapped it {he did}, and where it could be {turns out it was sitting wrapped in the correct paper right next to X}.

Her patient wait was worth it.

She is very excited to have one of these (as you’ll see in some upcoming posts).

Meanwhile E’s 2nd and 3rd gifts were more CARS cars and some sort of track thing that whips the cars around in an upside down loop. He insisted that it be put together right then.

Finally he was ready to open more presents. This was a CAT bulldozer that you can take apart and re-build with a motorized screwdriver. He loves it.

And since a 3 yr old can’t have enough CAT equipment…..this is E telling me he just got a Grater from Big Pappa.

It’s exactly 1:16 the actual size of a CAT grater.

One happy boy.

X, pleased to get more clothes.

Some DS games….

and tons of girly things like lotion, clothes, and accessories.

E got a gigantic box of Thomas the Train track {plastic…because he already has all the wooden track}. This was also something that needed to be opened and put together immediately.

Towards the end E had all of his gifts opened and sprawled out across the game room floor. {He’s sitting on his new “carpet” looking at an equipment book in the above picture}

And then we played. It was a perfect Christmas morning…if I may say so.

{This deserves a post of its own}

Christmas Eve morning I got a call from work from Amy, who is one of the part time pharmacists at my Walgreens.

She told me that she decided what she was going to get me for Christmas (as if she had to get me anything at all!)

“I’m going to come in and work from 6am-8am for you on Christmas morning so you can be home to see your kids wake up.”

It was honestly and truly one of the nicest and most thoughtful things anyone has ever done for me.

I didn’t hesitate to accept her offer.

And so at 6am Christmas morning I left Walgreens while it was still dark out and drove home in the blistering 30 degree weather.

I found Ryan sleeping on the upstairs couch (he was concerned E would come out of his room and open the presents) so I grabbed a blanket and laid down on the other and napped until the kids  woke up…..