CHRISTMAS!!!

So this was our first official Christmas on our own. No family, just us. It was kind of depressing, but at the same time it was a lot of fun because it gave us a chance to start some of our own traditions.

The girls were up bright and early this morning. Jared and I tried to ignore them until Melody walked into our room with a present and said 'wow mom look at this!' Then it could no longer be avoided!

We piled all of the presents in the middle of the room and made the kids take turns doing one at a time, which worked great for about 10 minutes then Katie was bored of the whole thing and wanted to do something else! Melody exclaimed over all of her presents and wanted everything opened right then.

She had to try on anything that could be worn and when she opened the bath letters from Denny and Alexis she grabbed them and headed toward the bathroom. I had to convince her that we would take a bath later and the letters would still be there.

Katie only made it half way then I had to start opening her presents for her. She was really tired because they were up so late last night at Emily's Grandma's house.

Once all the presents were opened we put Katie down for a nap. Then we opened Grandma Taly's gift. She got them a 'jumpolene', but we just call it the bouncer. We discovered shortly after opening it that it didn't come with it's own pump.

The nerve! So I was prepared to leave it until we could find one to borrow, but Jared was not discouraged. He started blowing it up by himself! I just laughed at first thinking he'd give up soon, but I should have known better! After almost 5 minutes he had the bottom mostly done and was still going! I could tell he wasn't giving up so I decided to help so he didn't pass out on me. We took pictures of the condensation on the bouncer for proof that we blew the whole thing up ourselves.

There were several comments about mom being able to finally put her hot air to good use, but really it's Jared so I sorta expected it! Melody was so excited! She wanted to take all of her other gifts into the bouncer so she could play with them in there. Melody and Daddy played for a while, and then Katie woke up. Jared stuck her in and off she went! She knew just what to do. I posted several videos in the bottom bar so Grandma's and Grandpa's could see the kids opening presents and playing. For one whole day I didn't hear one thing about watching a movie or cartoons, that in itself made everything worth it! Thank you to all of our family that helped make the holiday wonderful even though we couldn't be there!