Christmas Craziness!

I know I said I'd write more about Christmas and post more pictures, but I found I really don't have a lot of pictures to post. Christmas was fun...but a lot of mix ups happened this year. I guess the fun started with Christmas Eve though. Like I've said before, I always love Christmas Eve more than Christmas, just because it seems like that's when all the fun action happens. After a full six hour day at work I was so excited to go to my Grandma and Grandpa Whitley's for dinner and to hang out. Christmas Eve dinner is amazing......way better than Thanksgiving for two simple reasons...we have prime rib instead of turkey, and funeral potatoes instead of mashed potatoes haha. Now don't get me wrong, I love Thanksgiving and everything that comes with it...Christmas just tops it all. Anyway...as I was saying, I was SO excited to EAT! My family said we were meeting at 5:00....I was there at 5:00 sharp, just to learn that my aunt and uncle had barely left Logan....bummer. Okay I thought, that's fine I can wait an hour. I just hung out with my brother-in-law down stairs and had a good time. Finally they got there...."Okay, now I can finally eat!" I thought. My family sort of tricked me. My grandma let us start on our cocktails, but as I was sitting down there with my brothers and cousins, I came to learn that we couldn't eat dinner until Santa came. What?!?!? Don't get me wrong...I love Santa, he's a great guy, but I was sooo hungry and I LOVE grandma's food!
We thought Santa would be there in a few minutes....it ended up being closer to a half hour. My brother-in-law, Josh, and I both decided we could've totally stuffed our faces before then, but never-the-less, we'd be patient (at least I'd try to appear patient on the outside). It wasn't until right before I was to sit on Santa's lap that I found out the real kicker. The sneaky little parents, including my own, who sit upstairs and eat, had already started eating!!! Haha....dang it! Anyway, I sat on Santa's lap...I pretty much ended up getting the only broken candy cane (meaning I had been naughty this year) and this thing was demolished....a piece flew out of the wrapper and everything....I think someone framed me, I didn't think I was that bad. Even my Uncle Dave's candy cane wasn't broken! We all had a good laugh about it though.
But finally after a good half hour with Santa, we got to eat....and oh how delicious it was. After we ate, we had fun playing the chimes, doing the manger scene, watching Mr. Bean's Christmas, exchanging gifts, and watching Trekker dance on the table...what an awesome little kid.

Christmas was just a relaxing day for the most part. We woke up...there wasn't really a rush to open gifts....I pretty much had already used all the Christmas gifts early :). We ate an awesome breakfast of quiche, made by my sister Amanda and parents, and a candy cane pastry Cathy Wimmer makes for us every year. A little while later, Amberly, Josh, and Trekker came over. That was pretty much the highlight of my day...watching Trekker open his gifts. He was so good at it! After that, I went to visit Gay Lynne, Reed, and April while Nick was with his brothers. It was so good to see them. It was kind of sad to be there knowing Nick wasn't, but I really enjoyed it. I'm so glad Gay Lynne asked me to come over. I whooped them all in Rummicub!! I'm now proud to say I have won a game in the Child home! After that I went home and enjoyed the rest of my night with my family...going over to my Grandma and Grandpa Maisey's and hanging out with all of my Mom's family was fun. Oh....I forgot to tell the weird thing that happened on Christmas though. My Grandma and Grandpa Whitley always come over Christmas morning with our gifts, but with the weather being so bad they wanted to make sure they made it up to Logan in time to see my cousins. They ended up getting stuck there until Friday because they closed the canyon because of all the snow. It was crazy, but they stopped over on Saturday afternoon with our gifts and we all went out for Chinese food afterwards.

This year was different, but overall good. I'm so grateful for family and friends....Christmas just seems to intensify the love you have for people.