Counting Blessings: Merry Christmas!!

Today's Blessing:  Spending Christmas with Everyone!!  Even Jessica! :)

What an awesome day!  What an exhausting day too!

Last night Scott loaded up our car with all of our Christmas gifts.  It was quite the Tetris feat!  Somehow he always manages to fit everything in perfectly!! :)  This morning...after breakfast and Cody opening his "stocking" gifts..Scott, Cody and I loaded into the car and headed for Stephanie's home.  The whole family was meeting there to await Jessica's phone call from Argentina and then exchange gifts.

Cody made us breakfast!!  Kneaders French Toast!  Yummy! :)

Before

After :)

Before...oops, no after!  My Bad!! :(

Before...oops again!  No after!  Messed up again! :(

The scheduled phone call was 4:00 p.m. her time which meant 12:00 noon our time and she was pretty close to being right on time!  Aww!!!  It was so good to see her and hear her!  I teared up just seeing her and then afterwards I had to escape to the bathroom for a good cry and nose blowing.  Cody must have known I was having a break down because seconds later he was with me in the bathroom, hugging me tight and letting me have a good cry.  I'm so glad and proud that she's serving a mission, but I miss her so much too!  I remember having the same breakdown with Jason and Cody after those "calls home."  Jess looked beautiful and happy.  She loves what she's doing!  I was sad about one thing though, she never received her Christmas packages.  Ugh :(  Maybe she'll get them before she leaves to come home?!

Isn't technology awesome!!  Even in Argentina! :)

So after Jessica's phone call, the unwrapping of gifts began.  We still do the Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh tradition even though our kids are married and I still love it!  I love how we do the gift exchange.  Since there are only three gifts for each kid (plus the kids do their gift exchanges), we all take turns watching each other open their gifts.  It's so much better than tearing in like wild animals!!  I love being able to see everyone's reaction when they open their gifts...I just love giving gifts!!  Hopefully having everyone at Stephanie's house didn't overwhelm Stephanie too much since she is still recovering from her c-section.  It was just so nice having everyone together! (And I realized after viewing all my photos that I did a bad job at taking pictures!  Sheesh!!)

There's a ladder in that huge bag!

A gift from Cody...easy transportation for Mr. Bear :)

Ooo...a gift to accommodate a few sewing needs!

Toys, games and a little something to help with Amazon shopping!

Whatever could it be??  Jason was good at playing dumb on this one!

A mini guitar!!  Ha, ha!  A baritone Ukelale

On the way home, we stopped off at Moma Dean's and then Grandma and Grandpa Maw's.  It was around 9:30 pm by the time we got back to our house.  Cody said, "Wow, that was an exhausting day."  I had to agree with him.  BUT!...it was a good day too!  I love my family!!  Thank you Heavenly Father for blessing me soooo much!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!