Christmas Eve and Christmas 2016
The kids got to open one small gift from us for the 12 days of Christmas, and today is their last one! They have enjoyed this little treat!
Later, we told the kids they could pick one gift to open today, and they picked their gifts from the McDonnells!
They each got a super cool Boogie board! Uncle Joe got LJ one of these years ago- man have they gotten so much cooler!!!
They all loved it and started drawing on them immediately! How perfect will this be for upcoming travel too!!
LJ's first masterpiece!
That afternoon, we headed to Grandad and Queenie's house for Christmas Eve dinner with the family. The girls playing!
Buddies!
Middle boys!
Handsome hubby!
Uncle Dan!
Grandad!!
Aunt Funny, Aunt Kelly, and Queenie!
A table ready for a feast!
Kids table!!
Grown-up table (plus Ellie and Kiki)
Ellie wanted to say cheese too!
We got home pretty late, but still made sure to set out milk & cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer!!
After everyone was asleep, Santa made his arrival! Each child got one 'bigger' gift from Santa (what they asked for) and then a few small things in their stockings and around their gifts.
Ellie's doll, carrier, and sticker book:
Evan's Rescue Bots (he asked for 2!), a book, and snowman parachuter:
LJ's legos, Batman glasses/mask, and Santa parachuter:
And... LJ asked us to leave a camera out so we could try to catch Santa. Barrett did it!!!! Here is Santa putting out their gifts!!! We were surprised at how small he looks, but maybe that makes sense!?! He does have to fit down chimneys after all ;)
The calm before the storm! We let LJ come straight into bed with us and play iPad games until his siblings woke up so they could all walk out together! Of course, they were exhausted from staying up late on Christmas Eve, so we finally had to wake the other two up just after 8 (needed to be at Q&G's house soon)!
LJ is so excited to finally get started... Evan is still trying to wake up... haha!
LJ got his requested Legos from Santa! Yay!
Evan is so out of it still, he started to go through the wrong stocking!
Evan spotted his Rescue Bot ambulance and fire truck (these are like transformers!) from Santa! He was SO excited!!
Bella got some new toys... she was so excited!!!
Barrett had been upstairs getting Ellie. She is still pretty out of it, but he gave her her stocking! She picked up what to do with it pretty quickly!
Ellie is OBSESSED with ice/ icing everything! For example, if she barely taps her arm on a table, she insists that she go get ice and leaves it on her arm for hours! She is also teething and loves icing her mouth... so Santa left some new ice packs in her stocking ;) Very exciting for her!!
They opened a few gifts together... like new undies and warm underclothes from Capi and Gigi!
LJ asked for a picture of his 'Super excited face' to send to Capi and Gigi to thank them!
Santa left Ellie a new doll and carrier under the tree!
She immediately started carrying her all around and rocking her! So cute!!
New gloves!
Evan's Rescue Bot Ambulance...
Barrett's turn to open a few gifts....
The boys insisted on buying Barrett a football lego set- it's a very elaborate football field and players - all Cowboys! I am not sure if it was more for Barrett or them, but the boys were so excited to do it together (they LOVE doing Legos with Dad!!!) that I let them get it!
A new Under Armor sweater (hoping the sleeves are long enough!)...
And then the big one... The kids and I decided to tell Barrett we wanted to adopt a new dog this year! So we had a card, some new dog toys, and a stuffed animal (to hold until our new dog is home) wrapped in a bag!
Boys got new Austin Spurs shirts for when we go to basketball games!
Checking out how many cookies and carrots got eaten!
Then we headed to Queenie and Grandad's house for more Christmas morning fun!!!
They were even willing to dab!
As always, it was such a beautiful scene.... that got crazy and destroyed unbelievably fast!! haha! 
Boys got busy checking out their stockings...
Grandad got a few gifts too!
A robot from the Benzons!! LJ just requested a robot the other day- I couldn't believe he got one!!!
I had to step back for a minute and get a shot of the scene! So much happening!
Ellie loves her new shoes from Queenie and Grandad!
And stamp set from her aunt, uncle, and cousins!
Evan and LJ got new Longhorn football player outfits- the whole thing! And they are beyond excited!!!
Ellie opening her stocking with Dad!
'Fishing' for tadpoles in their pond before brunch! They got a lot actually!
Kids' table- round 2!! Our annual breakfast including the BEST biscuits, gravy, bacon, and pigs in a blanket ever!!!
Post-meal time on Barrett's lap for Ellie and Kiki (and Evan trying to get in on it of course!)!
A hug good-bye to these amazing Grandparents!!! So thankful for them and all they do!!! We love you Queenie and Grandad! Thanks for making Christmas traditions and memories so special!
Back home, we still had presents to open (we didn't have enough time in the morning before heading to Queenie and Grandad's). This gift LJ made for us at school, brought it home, and wrapped it all by himself! He showed me the wrapped product as he put it under the tree a few weeks ago, and I have been excited to open it! BUT I did not notice that he wrapped it in this random bag he found and ... aluminum foil! Haha! He said he didn't know where I kept the tissue paper so decided to use foil. So cute!!!
And we got a card and painted frame with a picture LJ drew of our family!! LOVE it!!!
Then we got to open one from Ellie that was in her bag from HOPE one day...
A precious ornament! Darn should've opened this one sooner!! Haha!
We spent the entire afternoon relaxing, opening and playing with all their new gifts, as well as cleaning out and organizing!!! We made the kids fill two bins of old toys to donate or give away before we added new ones to the chaos, and then we rearranged upstairs.
Our big gift to the kids this year was a Wii U video game. We have never had any type of video game for the kids, and thought this would be a good time to indulge in one. So in order to get this, we had to add some decor to the upstairs playroom (which has been kind of a hodge-podge mess since moving in!). So we got a new couch from Ikea and a new TV! The boys helped me pick the couch, loved every part of this elaborate gift, and we got it all set up the week they had off of school before Christmas so they could enjoy! (We plan to leave town right after Christmas, so this would be their big chance to enjoy before school starts again!)
After hours of work on Christmas afternoon, we made some serious progress! Still some work to do, but it's getting there!
Such a fun, full, and wonderful Christmas for our family this year! We are so thankful!!
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