Santa Claus definitely came to town...

WARNING: This is going to be a lengthy post. If you have the determination to keep reading, hopefully you won't be disappointed. Also, most of Julia's pictures are quite scary....just a warning. :)

This year was out of control. Of course we all know the true meaning of Christmas, and we were sure not to forget that. The kids actually slept in on Christmas morning. Ron and I finally woke them up at 9:00 only because the rest of my family was going to be showing up around 10:00. We woke Matt up first so he could call his mom and open his gifts from her. Once he was done we woke up the little ones and told them that Santa had come. I have never seen them move so fast! They could hardly contain themselves and started digging into their Santa gifts. Of course they were spoiled rotten!! There is nothing I love more than watching the kids get excited about opening gifts. It just cracks me up when they rip open a package and it's followed by joyful squeals.






Once the Santa gifts were opened, we all took turns opening our gifts from Grammy-too-far-away (Ron's mom). Once again she spoiled us all ROTTEN! She is such an amazing Grammy and mother-in-law. I know that she truly spends a lot of time and puts a lot of thought into the gifts she chooses for us. Everyone loved their gifts from her. (Ron took a pic of me with my gift from her, but I looked so horrific I opted not to put it on here...ha ha ha)






It was about the time we finished opening Grammy-too-far-away's gifts when my family started showing up. Our house felt so small at that moment as we crammed everyone into our living room. The guest list included: Grandpa and Grandma Winters, Yippaw(my dad), Grammy Chunk(my mom), my brothers Gary and Layton, my sister Apryl and some significant others...Mandy(Gary's girlfriend) and John(Apryl's boyfriend). The more the merrier! We all enjoyed opening gifts and laughing. Yippaw and Grammy Chunk went overboard and spoiled us all rotten also. Our kids are so lucky to have such great grandparents!!

I must have forgotten to say "smile" for this picture! ha ha ha



Grandma Winters gave me, Mandy, my Mom and Apryl some Turbie Twists. They are a turban-like towel that you put on your head after you wash your hair. She was so excited for us girls to FINALLY have one of these precious towels. We all had a hysterical laugh over the future cab drivers of Spokane...


It has been a tradition in my family that once all the gifts are open, the girls head into the kitchen to make a big Christmas morning breakfast. My mom and I were cooking the food when my dad walked into the kitchen. I had to grab something out of the dining room and made my way out of the cooking zone. Apparently I wasn't gone long enough because when I turned around I totally caught my dad groping my mom!! Nothing will spoil a Christmas morning quicker than catching your dad going in for a feel! SICK! He tried to play it off like he was just "giving her a hug"....give me a break. Nice try dad...and lets try and keep our hands to ourselves next year. :) Regardless of the touchy-feely incident, we had a great breakfast.

The next comical incident happened when John and Apryl were sitting on the floor building blocks with Julia and Tanner. John was talking about nuts (hopefully in reference to the cashews he was eating) and was making a joke to Apryl that his were bigger than hers. Julia all of the sudden piped up and said "no way John! My Yippaw has the biggest nuts!!" We all about died we were laughing so hard. We have no idea what sparked her to say that and she had no idea why everyone was about to wet their pants.

Julia must have been the queen of comedy that day because my mom told me later about an incident that happened with Julia when no one else was around. My parents were getting ready to head back to their place and my mom and Julia were sitting on the stairs waiting for my dad to put his shoes on. Julia noticed that Yippaw had a wedgie and was pointing and giggling at it. My mom told her to "go pull it out". Julia looked at her wondering if she really meant it. My mom was laughing and shook her head for Julia to proceed with de-wedging Yippaw. Apparently the look on my dad's face was priceless as he felt Julia's tiny fingers reach up to pull out the stuck undies and pants. LOL! My Dad turned around and politely said "Oh, thank you Julia!" We will be teaching her very soon never to go that close to Yippaws rear end....it can be hazardous!!! :) Love you Dad! ha ha ha

All-in-all we had a WONDERFUL Christmas. We are very fortunate to have such wonderful family to spend it with. Now we just need to work on getting Grammy-too-far-away here to join in the chaos!! :)