Mike stayed up really late last night getting Christmas ready. He was up for almost 24 hours straight. I think he got to bed around 5:30. We decided to exchange presents today, but Santa is still going to come tomorrow. The kids were great and didn't need to open the presents as soon as they got up. That gave Mike a little extra sleeping time. We did have a ton we needed to do this morning. When we started opening the presents, all the kids were dressed and ready for the day.
Our tree
The kids handed out their secret Santa presents first. Stockton had Maysen and his present didn't arrive yet. Boo! Too bad we couldn't find what he wanted to get her on Amazon Prime! He ordered it last week. I had hoped it would be on time, but nope. Jorja had Preston and Preston had Jorja. They gave each other basically the same thing. A Pokemon figurine. Jorja also gave Preston a wallpaper background of Pokemon on his ds. He loved that! Maysen gave Stockton a Legend of Zelda ds game. She spent a lot of time looking at reviews, she is pretty confident he will like this one. At least he will if he gives it a chance.
Preston loving his new ds wallpaper
From Jorja
Jorja and Preston
Jorja liked her present too!
Jorja and Preston
Stockton and Maysen
Really Preston? Must you always?
Stockton, Preston, Jorja, Maysen
Jorja, Stockton, Preston, Maysen
Jammies from Grandpa and Cathy
Jorja, Preston, Stockton, Maysen
Jorja got a Cold Stone card from Anne
We also got a gift card to Cheesecake Factory and a Beat the Parents game from John and Cassie. Maysen got a PetCo gift card from Brandon. The kids each got a book from us. Maysen and Jorja got animal care books. Preston got a Pokemon sticker book and Stockton got a drivers license book. Can you sense his excitement?
Jorja, Stockton, Maysen, Preston
Jorja got presents for everyone at the dollar store, except I think she got my frame from DI. Jorja LOVES giving presents!
Mike, Preston, Stephanie, Stockton, Maysen
The little kids are the easiest to buy for, so they had the most. Jorja is especially easy to buy for. I gave all the kids a calendar except Stockton. He was a bit disappointed when I told him he didn't get this gift. Preston opened his calendar and I said, "This is for you to keep track of when you take a bath." He thinks he takes a bath everyday. He does not! Anytime I ask him to take a bath he says, "But I had one yesterday!" Now I'm going to have him mark on his calendar when he gets out of the tub. If he doesn't mark it, it didn't happen. Maysen gets to mark her calendar whenever she exercises. Jorja's calendar is for scriptures. I'm going to write scriptures for her to read everyday. By following that she will have the Book of Mormon read by the end of the year and will be able to receive her virtue ribbon. I couldn't think of anything I needed Stockton to keep track of. He was laughing as they were opening the presents and was very glad he was skipped!
The main present was given by Mike. It is something he has been working on for a few months. He made each of the kids an interactive thing. Preston has a bear rug. Mike took it and put lights in its eyes. Now when Preston waves his wand at it the eyes will light up and he will talk to you. "That wand of yours nearly works!" "I'm so cute I can barely stand it!" and other such nonsense. Jorja was given a frog statue. Right now it just makes frog sounds when the wand is waved. Maysen was given a story book. Mike took one of our books, glued the edges and cut out the middle for the computer. He drilled holes in it for lights. When the wand is waved the book lights up. It will also say things like, "Once upon a time there was a young wizard. Stuff happened, blah, blah, blah, The End. Now go to bed." It's pretty cool. Stockton's was our favorite. Mike gave him a fruit bowl. He drilled eyes into a couple of fruits. One of Stockton's favorite Studio C sketches is a bowl of fruit that tops. Mike got the sound files so the fruit talks when the wand is waved. "Hey Tommy, are you going for a mid-day snack?" "Bananas are full of potassium for a healthy boys died" After awhile the banana gets mad. The eyes will light up red and you'll hear, "EAT ME!" Haha! It is so funny! Stockton loved it!
Stockton getting a fruit bowl
Stockton and Preston
The fruit
Mike didn't get everything finished for this morning. He is working on an app on the tablet so the kids can do quests. He has a bravery quest where they need to find the statue (my present) and the bear rug. He also has it so the TV starts the quest. Anyway, I'm pretty sure the kids are going to have a great time with this. While I was at the store, Maysen and Stockton recorded their voices for different things to have their gifts say.
We ended up leaving for Idaho around noon. Our plan was to leave by 9, but we were still opening presents then. I drove the entire way so Mike could catch up on his sleep. We got to Idaho about 3:30. Just enough time to stop by Grandpa's. We were meeting at Debie's house at 4:00. There we had food. everyone brought appetizers. I just fought a couple of bags of pretzels. We had meatballs, little smokies, deviled eggs, shrimp, taquitos. It was tasty. At 6:00 we went to Skyline Bowling. Our family had rented out the alley. This is the third year they have done this, but the first year we were able to come. It was so much fun! Stockton LOVED it! All my kids had a great time except Jorja. This has sen a long day and I guess she hasn't fully recovered from being sick. I did pretty good my first game. 139. It was all downhill after that. Matt played a game by himself. He kept starting it over until he got a strike on his first roll. He had so start it 6 times. He ended up with 184. Tyler did awesome and scored a 212! Wow! That's amazing!
Matt
Not sure what Bubs is doing.
Preston
Mike
Jorja
Preston loved changing everyone's name
Stockton
Stockton 'Strike dance!'
Spare
Stephanie's score. (The bottom one)
Maysen
Stockton
Strike dance!
Mike doing the spare dance
Stockton is just a bit competitive
I love this picture of Abby!
Preston
Tyler & Hallie, Matt & Anne
Ella was so proud to beat her dad.
Mike gave me a bowling ball, bowling shoes and a bowling bag as a wedding present. Too bad my bowling shoes broke today! They only lasted 19 years!
My poor shoe
Matt's game
Grandpa
Preston
Stockton
Grandpa
Tyler's game
Stockton's game
Stephanie and Courtney
We left bowling around 8:00 and drove up to the cabin. It was snowing by this time. On the way up to Idaho the roads were perfect and it didn't snow a flake. I guess Idaho wanted to make up for that because the snow was coming down! It was dark and slippery, but everyone made it here without incident. We were so happy to get to the parking lot! The Roes left the cabin yesterday. They left the heat on for us. That was awesome! As we were bringing stuff in we kept saying how thankful we were that they did that for us. Usually it takes quite a bit of time to heat up!
Jorja was feeling worse by the time we got here. She just wanted to get into bed. Everyone else was up super late! We found places for all 15 stockings. It was really cute when I tucked Maysen in. she looked up at me and happily said, "I love the cabin." Me too Maysen, me too. Tomorrow is going to be great! I hope the kids aren't super ornery with their lack of sleep! Preston was already ornery tonight. Mike was funny and said, "It takes a brave kid to be naughty on Christmas Eve. My hat is off to you sir." And then he bowed with his imaginary hat. I laughed so hard! For some reason Preston didn't think he was funny.
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