Christmas Morning-2013

When Eli woke us up early on Christmas morning, we were so excited to see that Santa had been at our house! We had all kinds of presents under our tree :) We must have been very good!

Santa got the message from Elfis :) Eli's three gifts had arrived direct from the North Pole-Zurg, Slinky, and Turbo. He was so happy!

Before Eli started opening gifts, we made sure to check the cookies and milk plate. Sure enough, Santa had gobbled up all the cookies. He must have been hungry for a late night snack :)

There was also a good-bye letter from Elfis along with a surprise for Eli. Elfis remembered that Eli's original Christmas list included Hamm from Toy Story. Later on, Eli changed his list and took Hamm off and put Turbo on. It was kind of confusing for Elfis at first, but thankfully, Santa got the message. Elfis surprised Eli with this gift. Eli loved it!

After reading both of the letters, it was time to open presents and play! We've always just let Eli open presents as he wishes on Christmas day. He'll usually open one toy up and play with it for a little bit before moving on to another toy. It's safe to say that Slinky was by far the best toy that Santa brought this year. Who knew he'd be such a hit?

Grandpa E surprised Eli with this really cool gear toy thingy that has lots of pieces and requires you to  have LOTS of patience. 

This was how Josh felt about having to actually read the directions.

They did eventually build one invention out of the book, but that was about all Josh's patience could handle. Maybe they'll do more the next time they build!

Josh and I got Eli a new electronic dartboard. He loves playing darts!

Eli went outside at one point to give Maggie her Christmas gift from us...a new rawhide bone.

Then it was back inside for more gift opening!

It was such a wonderful Christmas morning. We loved watching Eli open his gifts from Santa and from us. Eli had a blast playing with all his new toys and so did we! 

Playing a little old school Mouse Trap

Later that afternoon, we all went outside and watched Eli practice riding his new Razor scooter from Zue-Zue.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, eating yummy Christmas food, playing board games, watching Christmas movies, and spending time together as a family counting all of our many blessings...most importantly the gift of our Savior, Jesus Christ and the gift of salvation he offers all of us. 

Eli's Pre-K Christmas Program

This year at Eli's school they joined the Christmas program and Grandparent's Day into one HUGE day of fun for family and friends. They have the Christmas program in the morning, special gifts for the grandparents in the classrooms, and then they have the Scholastic book fair open as well. I love seeing all the grandparents and parents there to watch their kids perform and to spend the day with them. Eli's school isn't that big, but on this special day the campus is nearly overflowing with people! It's wonderful!  

A couple of weeks before the program, we got a letter telling us what part Eli was going to play in the program. The 3 and 4 year old classes were going to be doing short song and dance numbers to various styles of Christmas songs. Eli was going to be part of the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" so he was told to wear Christmas pajamas and to style his hair like he was from Whoville. He's not really a big fan of doing anything out of the ordinary with his hair, but once I told him his teacher wanted his hair like this, he was okay! 

Eli got a surprise from Elfis two days before his program when Elfis left these special Christmas jammies for him. Elfis must have known that I had been looking everywhere for cute Christmas jammies and hadn't found any. Eli was so excited to wear them to school Friday morning of the program!

The morning of the program we dropped Eli off at his classroom and then went to the gymnasium to get seats for his program. My parents and Josh's mom were all coming to watch Eli's performance and spend the day with him so we wanted to get seats for all of us. Josh's dad wasn't able to drive in for the performance this year, but hopefully next year he'll be able to! We missed having him with us!

Eli and his best friend, Logan

Eli and Hannah

After a short wait, the preschool kids started filling up the bleachers on stage. Eli was SO EXCITED when he saw us. Okay, actually, this was his face when he saw POP. The rest of us were just people with Pop. 

The program started and all the kids were precious! They didn't even have to do anything to look cute :)

"Santa Baby" group

"Run, Run Rudolph"

"Hula Hoop" song from Alvin and the Chipmunks

Simon and Theodore from the Chipmunks

Beach Boys group

"Jingle Bell Rock"

"You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch"

"I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"

Nativity scene

Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus

Joseph kept cracking me up. He kept patting Mary's head :) 

Towards the end of the program, Mary was D-O-N-E. 

The kids all did such a wonderful job! After the program was over, we all headed to Eli's classroom. He had treats for his grandparents and we also took some pictures before I went back to work (big surprise, huh?). 

It was such a fun morning and Eli's fun continued :) He got to skip school the rest of the day and leave with my parents to spend the weekend with them. As you can tell from the picture above, he was heartbroken that he had to leave his mommy and daddy :) Sometimes I think he'd live with my parents if I'd let him. Haha!