Christmas Day 2008...finally :-)

Looks like Santa did make it to our house!  My kids were worried every time they did the littlest thing...."is Santa still gonna come?!?"  Me:'I don't know...we'll have to see?'

My parents came over at 8:30 that morning and amazingly the kids were still sleeping!!  Jack was the first to wake up...so we woke up Hailey and let the festivities begin!! 

Checking out their loot from Santa....He doesn't wrap his gifts at our house.

Jack has wanted nothing else but this BLUE Lighting McQueen!  Santa delivered and he is currently sleeping with it :-)

Hailey, at the LAST minute, said she wanted Santa to bring her a puppy that knows your name.  I was like WHAT?!?!  But guess what? Santa can do it, he can do anything :-)  This puppy grows, talks, moves, it does know her name and she got to name it whatever she wanted!  It is pretty cool (plus I don't have to feed it or take it out to go potty!)

After the kids finished looking through all their other Santa stuff we took a break and had a little breakfast.  I made Amber's 'oh so yummy Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls'!  And we pretty much ate whatever other sweet was sitting around the table!!

Then it was time to open presents.  We let the kids be 'Santa' and pass them out.  They were so cute trying to read the tags. And they pretty much wanted to help everyone open every present they passed out!

Can you see Hailey crawling under the tree!?!  She was trying to get the presents in the back! We had to help her out because the gifts were too big to go under.... :-) 

After we handed out all our gifts we headed over to my parent's house to open gifts there.  It was another round of fun for the kids and us too!  Here is my dad and mom.

And my brother, Tyler...or Uncle Bubba as we all know him.

Oh, look!  Jack got a Nerf shooter gun just like Sissy's!!  Oh joy!! :-)

Again, we were so happy to have Darren home with us that day!  It was his fist Christmas off in three yrs.  But he did have to go in to sign warrants!!  So he wasn't completely off, and they did ask him to work from 6am-6pm, but he said NOPE!

Santa even left Pedro a new collar and leash.  And when he got to Grandma's he found him a new bone to chew on.  It's already gone.  They don't last long around here.

After presents the four of us went over to Darren's mom's house and visited for a little while.  We exchanged gifts and the kids desperately wanted to torment her cats :-)  After that we went with Darren to sign his warrants and then headed back to my parent's house to have our late lunch.  We decided against tradition and had awesome rib-eye steaks with baked potatoes.  So good!! We just were not in the mood to do 'holiday' food again.

So I got Darren a pretty cool gift this year.  It's for him to use during work (and play). I got him an XM satellite radio yet I didn't get the dock for it to sit in so we are waiting on that to come in the mail...sorry honey!  But the really cool thing I got him I knew was going to be late!!  That's because I didn't find it online until Dec. 23rd!! So I made him a card and told him his other gift would be a little last because Santa was trying so hard to get here fast that he got pulled over and that is what is holding him up!! 

We saw this inflatable in front of a police department in another town right next to ours and I just HAD to find it!!  Isn't it hilarious?!? I just love the way Santa is looking at the cop :-)

Here are my goofy kids with it!!

And I just want to say Happy Anniversary to my Mom & Dad!! Today (January 1st) is their 32nd year as husband and wife!

They got married at Pine Castle Church of Christ in Orlando, FL.  It was an evening wedding so the girls had candles in their bouquets.

They had cake, punch, mints & nuts at their reception.... at the last minute my mom's dad decided they needed finger sandwiches!  My grandma looked at him and said 'well you make them then...we've got enough to do!' And he did!! :-)