MERRY CHRISTMAS

Christmas morning is always fun at our house. Since we began doing the Hansen Christmas Eve party, our christmas day has become very quiet. We can sleep in. Last year the boys were up early, but they couldn't go into the frontroom to see what they got until the girls woke up. The girls slept in for about an hour after the boys had woken up. It drove the boys crazy laying in bed with us while we waited. This year, everyone was more on board of getting up early. I guess 7:15 isn't too bad. The kids have to wait in our room and line up youngest to oldest and then go out to the lit up Christmas tree.
This year we changed things just a little bit. We opened our Santa gifts first, then paused and ate a nice breakfast. Then it was back to opening up gifts from each other. We take turns so that everyone gets to enjoy seeing what everyone else got. We do a treasure hunt for the kids, it's like the main gift from Mom and Dad. Shelby and Shyann had already found theirs, but my parents showed up before Colby and Chandler had found theirs. Casey decided to put their clues in Webding format. They had to decipher their clues. Colby was so upset about it. They finally found their gifts and they unwrapped them. Then they showed off their gifts to their Grandpa and Grandma Hansen.

What was on the wish list this year?

COLBY

Ripstick

Zelda - twilight Princess Wii Game

Airsoft Gun

CHANDLER

Snap Circuit Extreme 750 experiments

Origami Books

Boom Blox Wii Game

SHYANN

Fur Real White Kitty

Hannah Montana Guitar

All Star Cheer Squad Wii Gam

SHELBY

Fashion Hair Doll

Purple-ish Metalic Nintendo DS

Polly Pocket Swap - N- Dress

We enjoyed time just spending the day with each other. We played our new games and watched DVD's. We had a very merry christmas and hope that all of our friends and family did, too!

(Sorry no pics, I took them with my DSLR and they haven't been uploaded to my computer yet.)

Hansen Family Christmas Eve Party!

We had one busy Christmas Eve. Casey's mom decided she was flying to Virginia on Christmas morning so she had us over for a dinner and gift exchange. We ate with her at 4:30 and left to go to the Hansen party at 6:15.

We had the Hansen party at my sister, Denise's, home in Syracuse. My brother-in-law narrated the nativity from the scriptures and the kids dressed up. (My mom decided to start doing this last year). The kids love being able to dress up. Five of the girls wanted to be angels. We ended up with a lot of angels and only 1 wiseman. Kambree I think was supposed to be Joseph (I'm not sure why), but she got a hold of pom poms and was hopping back and forth waving them in the air. She is such a cutie. With so many little ones, we have learned to just go with the flow.

Colby, Eric, and Michael made up the "star". While Chandler was King Herod.

All the cousins pulling a face while waiting to open gifts.

Grandma & Grandpa gave all the grandkids a hoodie this year.

Shelby got this cute Hannah Montana hoodie. Colby got this awesome one.
Chandler is soaring with Eagles in his hoodie.

And Shyann got this cute Hannah Montana.

We had such a fun night! The kids would keep running to the computer where Santa was being tracked. They had a great time seeing the different countries and videos of what Santa would have seen as he went into different places.

Missing

Sorry, I've been gone way too long. If it's not one thing with my computer it's another. So about a week after my virus was cleaned up, my internal hard drive started dying. We thought it would survive until Christmas break, but NOOOO! We had to get a new one (of course the warranty we had for the last one expired in November - just my luck). I had a great friend who invited me to use her desktop with my external hard drive so that I could finish my mom's calendar. Anyway, I am back up and running.

My sister introduced me to "facebook" this last week so that's another reason I've been missing. I've enjoyed catching up with people from high school.

I'm way excited about this season and holiday. I love the snow that has fallen and I hope it stays for a white christmas. I'll have to get some photos. It sounds like the snow isn't done yet, so I am sure I will have ample opportunities this week.