Christmas Aftermath

 As it does every year Christmas came and went and it was magical and wonderful and crazy all at the same time.

We started a tradition a couple of years back where the 23rd is our family Christmas party.  The kids earn money and buy each other a gift and exchange them on this night.  It is one of my favorite nights of Christmas.  The kids are so excited because it is the first gift of the season and they just play and enjoy the gifts from each other all night while we eat snacks, watch movies, and talk about Christmas.

We also love Christmas Eve which is usually spent with our extended family.  This year we made our way to Zac's mom's house and spent a day's worth of eating AMAZING food, playing games, watching a great slide show of Christmas' past and acting out the nativity.

This is all of the cousins in their Christmas jammies.  There are 15 of them now and good luck getting a picture with everyone looking and no one moving!

The Nativity- Ashlyn was the angel, Charlotte was Mary, Tanner was a Shepherd.  Ian was a wise man, and Bronson and Whitlee wanted nothing to do with any of it.

Things get crazy pretty fast when you put 15 kids and a bunch of presents in a room.

Don't know the purpose of this one, but I thought it was a fun selfie of Zac and our bro-in-law Brandon.  We love all of our in-laws.

More cousins.

We were also able to enjoy some snacks later on at the Martineau Grandparents house and ate more food, opened more presents, and played with more cousins.  It was pretty much the best day ever!!!

Christmas morning: 

Tanner wanted an architecture set and Santa didn't disappoint.

Bronson got some tools and a music player for his Primary CD's that he loves.

Charlotte got a Princess tent, a Zuppy, and a Flutterbye Fairy

Whitlee got a fun foam mat, and some teether toys and a book

Ian got some Star Wars gear, a pogo stick, and a leatherman

Ashlyn got this amazing vanity that came from Zac's Grandma's cabin.  His sister Megan refinished it and it is beautiful.

And Tanner and Ashlyn got their own mini-tablets.  I am just going to put a plug in here about how amazingly kid-friendly these tablets are or this wouldn't have happened.  I wanted the kids to have an option to listen to Pandora and therefore offer them more music selection and more uplifting selections than what the radio provides, but I have tried to avoid giving them too much technology at too young of an age.  These tablets came with Internet filters installed that won't let these kids get into anything... unless they have permission from us.  Also, we can set timers for every day of the week.  I can tell that tablet what hours of the day those kids can use it and for how long.  It's great.  They feel so big and our home is full of good music.  Win!

Ian also got a Zuppy and had a great time putting together a cabin lego set from Grandma Kris.

Whitlee pretty much just thought the paper was the best part of Christmas.

Santa brought Zac this really cool cardboard toy that hooks onto his phone and transports him into a virtual 3D world.  This is pretty much what Zac looked like all Christmas day:

Everyone had fun trying out Ian's light sabers.

And Whitlee discovered that she really loves cuddly blankets. 

 Bronson got some tools, which was his second choice after the Barbie movie and he loved them.  He told me he was going to make me a lamp.  I am a little scared.

Ashlyn loved her Zuppy and vanity. 

And Charlotte has slept in her princess tent with her pink Zuppy almost non-stop since Christmas ended. 

All the kids decided they needed houses for their new Zuppies, so they broke out Tanner's architecture kit and made some pretty impressive houses.

While Tanner impressively assembled the Salt Lake Temple out of Legos.

The Flutterbye Fairy was a huge hit with Bronson 

And pretty much all of us, that thing is pretty much amazing.

As for me?  My favorite present of the season was this:

A beautiful and ginormous family tree lovingly made for me and printed on canvas by my sweet husband.

We are so stinking blessed.  I know these Christmas posts have been so lacking on spirituality, but we really did have a wonderful season focused on our Savior.  We are so thankful for his birth and his life ministry.  We had a wonderful season full of the Spirit and can't wait to see what the new year brings.