Christmas 2019

Christmas Eve this year was a calmer day for us then it has been in the past. It worked well for this stage of life.  We had plans to go to McKay's moms house to say hello, but in the end she decided to come visit us.  This made our day simple.  We visited with her for a while.  Then the weather was so nice we decided to walk to the park to get the kids wiggles out.  After the park we had promised the kids Chick fil a for dinner and Grandma came with us.  Win win!  We even went inside and let them play on the play ground (this doesn't happen very often).  They LOVE chick fil a  and together they ate 30 chicken nuggets and 4 chicken sandwiches. 

That evening we came home and they all got to open one present.  This present was new jammies that had been given to us by donors who have donated to Utah foster care.   These jammies, along with other toys and books were  all gifted to us by Utah Foster care and servicemen from Hill Air Force Base delivered them to our house.  We are so thankful for their donations and sacrifice of time for these cute foster kiddos.  Their gifts helped make this a special Christmas for the kids.

Then it was off to bed for these 8 munchkins.  

Christmas morning everyone woke up excited to see if Santa had come.  Thankfully they didn't wake up until 7:30 so it wasn't too early of a morning for us.  

Christmas morning over here was a blast.  I was worried about how everyone was going to handle all of the emotions and chaos that comes with Christmas morning... how many fights we were going to have to break up over toys, who would open a present first... etc.  Thankfully the kids were excited in all the right ways.  They were patient and waited their turn to open a gift, and everyone seemed to like what they were given.  Which is a good thing because they were given pretty much every toy under the sun!  This Christmas ended up being our biggest one yet.  The kids had so many toys to play with and they were in heaven.  Once everything was unwrapped McKay and I spent the morning opening boxes and setting things up.  They played ALL day long on Christmas.  I think I saw Nola three times that day.  Breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Nola and Declin played paw patrol ALL day.   Some of the present highlights this year were the mini trampoline, paw patrol tower and toys, new rugs for the living room, a remote control helicopter, and some American Girl type dolls for Addie and Big Sis.    

After presents we tried to get things cleared out and boxes put in the garage.  My family came over around lunch time to have a big meal all together.  It is always fun to hear how everyone's Christmas mornings went and what their favorite parts were.  After lunch the Dads all went over to Larissa's house to help them set up their new trampoline (it is so fun that we live close) and the girls talked home decor ideas (our styles are all pretty similar so it is fun to bounce ideas off of each other).  And the kids kept playing... 

The rest of the evening was full of playing with toys and setting up all our new things around the house.  By Christmas evening I was ready for the Christmas chaos to go away and I was tempted to take down the tree that evening, but I resisted.  haha!   

2019 Christmas will always be a bitter sweet one in our lives.  Bitter, as I know our foster kiddos were missing their family.  Sweet, because we loved having three extra kiddos here with us and seeing their faces light up with each new toy.  Oh the many emotions of foster care...   

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas as well!