Christmas Celebration #2

So Christmas Celebration #2 was a combination of our Christmas at home and our Christmas with the Huntley side. It's never that big of a deal at our house but we do try to have some presents for the kids before we go to Dave's parents house. Our kids had stayed up way too late the night before since we were at my grandma's. So I woke up at 4:15 in the morning. I'm still not sure why. I'm not really the type that can't sleep on Christmas morning because of the anticipation. It was, however, going through my head that I had to wake up at 6:45 to do my shower so I could get the kids up in time to make it to Nana and Buddy's by 8 for breakfast. The thing that didn't figure into my plans was Leah crying at 4:45. She has slept through the night for almost a year now without big crying spells. Once in a while I'll hear her cry a bit and then she'll rustle around and settle back in and sleep. But this time she cried and cried so I decided to get up and take my shower. When I came back up, Dave was getting her out of bed and taking her to bed with him. By his report, she layed with him a few minutes and seemed like she was going to bed but then she popped her head up and was wide awake. So he ended up just getting up with her. For some reason Zach was up too. So Dave decided we should get the middles up and start the day. (This was about 6.)

By 7:00 we were to our destination. Leah hadn't stopped crying. She cried and clung to me the entire time. By the time we got to Sue's house I thought she was ready for nap. She was so tired she wouldn't get off my lap so we went to the bed and she laid with me for awhile but then she popped her head up and it was the same old story.

So I basically held her or someone else did until it was time for presents. We all figured she would perk right up and snap out of it and be fine but it wasn't to be. She sat on my lap with her blankie almost the entire time. Right at the end she decided to get up and play with a couple of her toys. It definitely wasn't how we had envisioned the day since she is usually so much fun. But I guess it was okay. She was really ready for her nap and slept a long time and then was much happier afterwards.

Shelby got to read the Christmas book this year.

Sydney!

This was one of the few times she wasn't on my lap.

Mikayla! Being very patient.

Alexis and Leah got these super cute matching dresses.

And then it was Zach's turn to open this box. I wanted to get a picture of him opening it.

When it started ringing, he was really confused and looked pretty nervous. He said things like "It must be a game of some sort." "Because it couldn't be a phone." "But I really don't know what it is." (Then he started talking really fast.) "It can't be a phone. Is it a phone? Oh my gosh, it's a phone!!"

And it was.

And this is all I saw.

Because he was gone.

Because he started screaming like a girl and ran into the bathroom and slammed the door. And knocked a picture off the wall and broke it and it fell into the toilet.

But we won't really talk about all that.

Suffice to say, he really loves his phone and was completely surprised and that's all there is to say about that. And he hasn't quit texting since he opened it. But that's a different story.