Christmas 2011

Christmas was wonderful, full of warmth, family, friends and food. All of my favorite things. I love nothing more than to see the excitement of my kids around the holidays and to see our families coming together and the house full of laughter. I love every minute of it! And this year was extra special, my little Rori has had a tough year. She has been having a real hard time finding her place in this crazy family and she makes sure that she does not go unseen. How does she do this? Well, chances are you have seen most of my blog posts. The one thing that makes her behave a little more and really gets her attention is every year when Santa comes to town and brings fun little gifts! So why not reward all the naught behavior she has had all year with a special visitor?! Yes, that is right. Santa came all the way from the freaking NORTH POLE to personally deliver my Rori a message in PERSON!!! And of course to say hello to all the other kids. It is something that I'm sure my kids and everyone else will always remember, a memory for the books for sure. It all started here, at our home. There was a loud knock at the door and I told Jameson to go get the door. I watched him as he started walking towards the door and came to a dead stop, took 2 steps back and said in a very serious voice "Mom... It's Santa".

Sure enough it was the jolly old man himself! All of the kids got so excited and so quiet real fast but Rori knew exactly why he was there. All of the other kids ran up to him just staring, happy and full of joy that he was there. Not Rori, she took off running the opposite direction into our bathroom behind the kitchen where she was HIDING!! It took some coaxing, no more like we physically picked her up for her to come out of her hiding spot. Then Santa sat her on his lap and told her she needed to try extra hard and be extra nice from then on. No more stealing, lying... the list goes on. And she agreed. Then Santa talked to all the other kids and everyone got a chance to sit on his lap and he gave little gifts and was on his way. No more than 2 minutes after Santa left did Rori Ana say, in a very snotty way "I aint dowing to be nice no mo! I'm not! I'm donna be naughty! Not a dood dirl!" So much for that whole thing. Oh well, the other kids enjoyed it.

Then it was Christmas morning! The kids were up bright and early, as usual. The whole house always has such a special feeling in it on Christmas morning, everyone is so excited and all the hard work finally pays off when they run downstairs and see that the cookies and milk are gone, there are wrapped presents under the tree, the reindeer food has been eaten and the whole family is together around the tree.

This is my favorite gift of all. This was Rory's scooter when he was a young boy and he has since passed it on to Jameson. James has easily 4 other scooters (I know, what does he need them all for I'm not sure) and this one has always been his very favorite one. He says it jumps higher and goes faster and does way better tricks than any other scooter in the whole world! Well after years of abuse from Rory and now from Jameson it was not scootin' so well anymore. So, Rory took it to his shop and it got a total makeover. New wheels, bolts replaced and tightened and a new paint job! It is still the same old scooter but now it jumps even HIGHER!!

Yes, I got the babies leashes. Go ahead! Make fun of me, I know I did when I saw other parents holding their children on leashes! But, I'm one of them now. I have total control! When the girls dart off in different directions I give a quick snap on that leash and BAM!!! There they are at my side! Plus... we were going to Disneyland. Give me a break.

All year Chanel was asking for an Easy Bake Oven. She told Santa and she wrote it down on every one of her lists. She begged and pleaded and guess what was waiting under that tree. She was such a good girl this year, how could she not get that Easy Bake Oven?! Here she is waiting for her first batch of cookies. She takes after the Royce side of the family, always baking, cooking, sewing, crafting etc. I just love her!

This is what it looks like AFTER all the warmth leaves the house and the fuzzies inside kind of start to go away when I see this....

Christmas day is always so crazy for us. First we do our Christmas, then we are off to Grandma and Grandpa Royce's where we eat lots of good food, open more gifts and play out the night baby Jesus was born.

Here are some of the wise men...

Grandma makes the best Christmas gifts ever! Here are all the grand kids in their cool robes!

Then we go to Nana's (my mom) and we eat MORE yummy food and open more gifts and eat our homemade tamale's and spend the time with more family.

Then we go see Grandma and Grandpa Earle! Eat more yummy treats, open more amazing gifts and usually by that time we are about wiped out, as you can see in the picture.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!