Christmas with Both Families

We were SO LUCKY this year that we were able to spend Christmas with BOTH of our families. And the nice thing was that we were able to sleep in. We opened presents with William's family first when Chris, Karen, and Charles got back from spending the morning with her family.

I loved our Santa piles (instead of stockings) with tons of candy with Reeses for William

and this neat snow globe/ornament shaped bottle of coke- so cute!

We had a "train theme" going for Chris' family gift had a train theme to it. We got some blocks for Charles and made it in the shape of a train- well, at least as William and his dad attempted to do that.

I think that William had the most fun with the blocks.

William and Chris have a long standing tradition of creative ways of presenting their Christmas gifts (remember the diaper from last year?) Well, William wasn't able to combat that but we did make a good attempt. Chris ate nearly one of the Costco size bags of Peanut M&Ms in one night so we gave him a nearly eaten bag and then used the rest of the M&Ms to make a railroad track around the Ticket to Ride game

William had Chris go on a short treasure hunt (2 locations) before finding the gift, but Chris had a tough time finding the toy train in the pantry. However, Chris definitely had his "payback" with William sending him on a scavenger hunt to nearly 30 different locations. Here are all of the clues set out

And the gift to us was classic- William got a bag of "chocolate coal"

While I got a bag of gold coins!!! Chris and Karen sure knows where the real value lies in our family :-)

Santa knew that we LOVE sweets and gave us a wide assortment of them- caramels, cinnamon nuts, and even some Lehi Roller Miller treat mixes (which I know that our Sunday school class will love)

It was so much fun to watch little Charles play with his gifts- he especially LOVED the ribbon on the wrapping paper

So many gifts- not sure yet what to do with them- maybe next year.

But he did figure out how to ride his new Tonka truck

However, he hasn't yet figured out how to walk with it. He wouldn't move his legs- he would just stand and hold on and then fall down as the truck slid away. Just enjoy one of the functions at a time :-)

We then headed back up to my parents house in SLC to have an evening Christmas. We had Christmas dinner with my mom's special Christmas china and then opened our gifts, so it was like 7 pm when we got started but at least everyone was there (including Spankie). My dad, Sarah, and my mom filming with the video camera

Cynthia and Spankie, Yours Truly (William was taking the photo)

Besides the car GPS units that William helped my sisters set up, the highlight gift was my dad's U of U jacket (Sarah and I are outnumbered- 2 BYU to 3 Utes, but we are generally favorable to the Utes :-)

We feel so blessed that we were able to spend Christmas with our families- again, we MISSED you Corey and Bekky but we were definitely thinking about you!!!