Christmas 2016

I really have been enjoying not working.  I have been getting so much more stuff done which even included decorating the house for Christmas much earlier than past years.  Jake thought I was crazy when I start busting out Holiday decor before Thanksgiving.  Since I'm home so much more I wanted to really enjoy the house being so festive for as long as I could.  This was even the first year we had real Christmas lights hung on both stories of the house.  Yes, Jake is totally against professionals hanging holiday lights, but I just couldn't help myself and I wanted to see the whole house lite.

For Christmas Eve we of course drove up to Riverside early in the morning to make sure we were there for the tamale spreading.  I was really proud of Skylar because she got right in there and spread a ton of tamales.  Skylar also turned into the tamale counter and counted each and ever tamale we made with Papa's counter.  Madden attempted to spread a couple but he we get upset anytime he got masa on his hand so he was out pretty quickly.

We had a really mellow, quiet Christmas Eve which isn't usually the norm.  I don't know if it was the weather being so cold or just that my Dad didn't have his music blowing out everyones ear drums that it was nice being able to really enjoy the whole families company.  The kids opened presents which was really cute because the 4 littles ones (Skylar, Madden, Jaylee, and Carmen) would give each other hugs after ever present opening.  The parents white elephant was a lot of fun with several presents being stolen.  My garden gnome was a hit being stolen a couple times.  

Christmas morning was magical like always.  The kids ran down and opened up presents in such a quickest it was all over in a matter of minutes.  This year Santa brought Madden a bike and Skylar a Hatchimal.  Both what they requested.  Madden was a bit disappointed when he came down and saw that his bike didn't have the color green in it, but he got over that pretty fast.  We all helped hatch Skylar egg which took longer than anything else.  Madden wouldn't even open up a box that he knew was clothes, he would just had to to me and say "clothes," and be on to the next.

Skylar made out with a Easy Bake Oven, Polaroid Camera and tons of clothes.

It was a Pokemon Christmas for Madden for sure.  He got anything and everything Pokemon, Laser tag guns, and Legos.

We stocked up on new games for the family.

Don't think any of us could of asked for a better Christmas Day.