Bye, Christmas.

On Christmas Eve Rus and I had a "discussion" with our kids right before bedtime.
"No going downstairs without Mom or Dad."
"No waking up other kids until you talk to Mom or Dad."
"No waking up before 6am."
Wouldn't you know it, I woke up just before six, filled with anticipation, and had to wait...the kids didn't wake up until 6:46. I remember because Bekah ran into our room yelling, "It's 6:46! We slept in! It's time!"
I called my parents and they hurried over so they could share Christmas morning with us.
The first thing Bekah saw when she went downstairs was this:Doesn't every little girl need a hot pink kitchen? The wrapped present was a new Easy Bake oven from Santa. The curtains are hiding two little blue Ikea drawers and a shelf. The curtains are from my favorite fabric ever and the glass knobs were stolen (with permission) from an old cabinet of my mom's. The inspiration came from www.anawhite.com. Bekah loved it and has been eating every meal at it every day and trying to store everything inside of it. (She's a cute little pack rat.)When Jacob came downstairs he saw an awesome hot wheels chain reaction toy and a wrapped present that contained...LEGOS! Can I just say that I am SO happy I have a kid old enough to play with legos? I LOVE legos!
Beau had a fun new train track set with motorized cars and CANDY! His smile in this picture is from finding candy in Rus's stocking.I got exactly what I wanted for Christmas from Santa - a really nice face painting kid from Klutz. And a new watch from my parents. And brown boots and a cute necklace. And the "Hello Cupcake" cookbook, a "Salsa Brava" cookbook from my favorite mexican restaurant in Flagstaff, and a water-bath canner. Tyler and Gina gave us a really cool (heavy) magnet board and a balloon animal kit. I am totally going to become a Carny now. (I have a unicycle in the garage - Rus's mom's actually - I'll have to learn how to ride it.) I also got a #1 Mom award from Amy. Inside joke - totally made me laugh.
Anyway...ever since Tyler and Gina's reception (where there was a face painter present), I had dreamed of getting a face painting set and painting all the kid's faces on Christmas day. And that is exactly what I did. Bekah started out with snowflakes...(My hidden talent - making snowflakes)Jacob had fire (here with his new headlamp, too)...Then Bekah, Libby, and Zaya wanted to be butterflies and Emma wanted to be a cat.Zaya's was especially cool with her green eyes (and messy face).It was a perfect day. Really. Oh and the night before wasn't too bad either...everyone came down for Christmas Eve dinner and of course we had the little kids reenact the nativity, Rus and Jake wrestled, little Jacob almost got wrapped in a box, we sung Christmas songs (including Jingle Bells in Luff language), and my dad read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to the little kids. Oh my how I LOVE Christmas! I am grateful it was such a special experience this year...and to be truthful I am grateful it's over!