MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT - FINALLY!

Well we finally made it through Christmas -whew! Hunter and I stayed up until 4am wrapping presents and watchin Eagle Eye. I mostly wrapped and Hunter mostly watched the movie. Hunter did put Jaxon's bike together and most all of it stayed together once Max started riding it :). Only the seat continues to fall off. Not bad considering he did it all w/out a wrench. As we finally started to head upstairs about 4am, who should we meet but Tanner on his way down! I told him I didnt care if he stayed up but I was going to sleep for a while. Finally about 5:30 they came in and woke me up so I went down and we opened presents. It must have been the year of gratitude (for some other family). Jaxon cried cuz he wanted a red car not a gold one, and it just wasnt fair that Savannah got a movie and no one else did. Oh but wait....Savannah kept asking why oh why she got Indiana Jones???? In the end though, after everything was opened, all the kids were happy with what they got and was playing happily. Coll and Max had a great time makin new Ben Ten monsters and riding thier bikes all over the house. Tanner has had his headphones in constantly listing to music on his new mp3 player. Miranda is still experimenting with make up (she looks older every day). Savannah's baby keeps on singing and asking to go potty. Hunter - well he took his box of twinkies (the only present he asked for) and went back to bed.

I finally got back up around 2:30 and didnt do much but try and wade through what looked like a bomb had gone off in Santa's workshop. We finally found everyone in the mess and went up to Grandma and Grandpa's. Hunter refused to put the soap in Grandma's bathroom even though EVERYONE asked him to ;) After hangin around there for a while we braved the worst storm of the year and headed home. We drove 25 mph all the way home on the freeway cuz the roads were so bad! We finally got home and decided to watch Twilight. Everyone fell asleep within about 30 min. Coll was the first to go with a candy cane still in his mouth! After all was said and done it was a great Christmas.

The kindness and generosity of our ward memebers is amazing! Someone left a basket on our doorstep with gift certificates galore! We are going to go bowling, swimming, and so many other things. It was all I could do not to sit and cry. It has been so long since we have been able to go do fun things as a family, and this kindness is heaven sent. Who ever the Christmas Angel was - THANK YOU! It has renewed my determination to finish school and be able to return the favor, helping other.