December 25, 2009

Location: Blackfoot, Idaho

Finally the most anticipated day of the year was here! MERRY CHRISTMAS! We spent the very early morning containing the kids upstairs until Papa Nolie gave us the "GO!" signal. Seems like not so long ago I was waiting in the exact same spot with the same anticipation!

Do you see me?

1, 2, 3 OPEN

Sheer Delight

Big Thank You Hugs!

New Six Shooters!

Presents, Presents

Helping Papa

Hhmm do we think alike?

Merry Christmas!

Horsey Rides

Nope, I didn't eat ALL the M&Ms!

Sitting in the comfy trash

Anden tried to convince us he didn't eat 5 donuts for breakfast. Somehow we didn't believe him.

We always spend Christmas day up at my Mom's house in Idaho Falls. This year, we had a heartfelt change of plans at the last minute. We decided to all travel 2 hours to Utah instead to visit Grandma Hunsaker. She's recovering in a rehabilitation center and longed for our family craziness to fulfill her day.

Location: Blackfoot, Idaho - 12:oopm
Estimated Arrival: Brigham City, Utah - 2:00pm

Mom had these adorable "presents" for the kids to wear when we walked into Grandma's room! Even Anden participated with good cheer...for 2 minutes!

Our Bingham relatives, from Salt Lake, revamped their plans for the day and met us there too! It was great catching up with everyone! They're a hilarious bunch. The volume decibels really sky rocket when we all get together! The boys loved that there was a big screen and Wii! We stayed there for a couple of hours there and then hit the road again.

While we were caravaning home we decided to go ahead and do our usual hang out/gift exchange in Idaho Falls anyway (since the kids were finally napping!!) We figured we might as well get every last second squeezed out of the 24 hrs of Christmas!

Location: Brigham City, Utah - 4:30pm
Estimated Arrival: Idaho Falls - 7:00pm (with a pit stop in Blackfoot to gather gifts)

Mel & Brooke

Nate & Lynds

Gift Chaos

Guilty Chocolate Stealers

Mel: the source of the chocolate!

Lynds, Brylee & Barbie

Story time with Uncle Lukey

Noah

Getting Jordan's autograph

More Books!

So...Christmas was definitely a LONG day but worth it!! I have to admit that by the time we left Idaho Falls the hidden Grinch in me had vetoed saying "Merry Christmas" anymore. I'll safely bet that I used that phrase 5816 times that day throughout all our journeys. 5817 times would have sent me and my children spiraling into a Christmas meltdown.

FINAL Location: Blackfoot, Idaho
Arrival: 10:00pm

Is it still Christmas??!