Christmas Eve......

I woke up to the laughter of children Thursday morning. I didn't get to sleep until 3am because of Gunner and I was happy to see the kids at least let me sleep until 8:15am.

They all came running upstairs and sat at the table looking at me with expectant faces. Braxton blurted out "Do we get to open our presents now?!" I told him not until later that afternoon (it was going to be a long day....).

Jax and Cambria got breakfast for everyone. It is so nice having older grandchildren. Jax poured the Fruit Loops and Cambria poured the milk. They even made me a bowl.

After they all got dressed they decided to go outside and have a snowball fight. Cambria and Braxton forgot their gloves so I loaned them mine. Cambria chose the cream colored ones which left the pink ones for Braxton. Well he would have NOTHING to do with those pink gloves. He would have rather gotten frost bite and lost all his fingers than put on those pink gloves. So Cambria gave him the cream gloves to wear and because she was so nice to Braxton I got my really warm red gloves out of the car and let her wear those.

The snow ball fight didn't last long. We haven't gotten any fresh snow (the storm we were supposed to get Tuesday piddled out) and the snow was all hard and frozen. Not good for packing.

After a morning of watching cartoons, coloring pictures and anything else we could think of the children were getting restless. So I suggested McDonald's for lunch. Jax asked if we were going to eat inside (we usually get it to go) and I said yes and that was all it took. They were in their coats so fast and out to the car before I even found my shoes.

The deal was they had to eat first then play and they did. While they played I just sat there and pulled up another chair to put my feet up and relaxed and watched them play. Thank goodness for McDonald's playland! I let them play as long as they wanted to until we had to leave so I could get the ham in the oven.

Everyone started arriving around 3pm. The first ones there were Les, Paul and Gunner (who was feeling a little better but still coughing). With them they brought the present for their kids. A puppy!!!!!!!!!

Isn't he cute!?!?!?! Paul named him Brown, every time Gunner called him he called him White (it's a color isn't it?). I'm not sure what kind of dog it is but Leslie says it will not get much bigger. He just wanted to cuddle with everyone.

Then Jamie and Patrick came. I noticed while Patrick was saying hello and hugging everyone Gunner was running towards the banister and peaking at Pat and hollering for his mom and when Patrick hugged Leslie you would have thought he was going to eat her by the look on Gunner's face. Gunner knows Patrick and has been all right around him but for some reason today he was a little afraid of him. So Patrick started trying to win him back. This picture might explain why Gunner was a little scared of Patrick.......

I'm not sure if I've told you how big Patrick is and I'm not even sure how tall he is exactly. I've asked but I can't remember what he told me. But I have 7foot ceilings in my house and you notice that in the picture there is NOT much between the top of Patrick's head and my ceiling. Notice the worried look on Gunner's face! Leslie is wearing very flat shoes and she is around 5'6".

Patrick is a gentle giant and we love him. He is great with the kids and they love him (except for Gunner). Gunner did think it was neat that when Pat picked him up he could touch the ceiling.

Then is was time to eat. We had ham, olives, rolls, a tossed green salad and Jamie's baked mac and cheese (which is the kid's favorite). Good stuff! Here is Cambria, Braxton, Jax and Trevon eating as fast as they can so they can get to the present opening part of the evening.

Jamie, Paul, Patrick and Leslie filling their plates....

We were trying to find Gunner so he could eat and this is where we found him. He was truly mesmerized in front of the TV by "The Polar Express" that we had left playing. He wouldn't even acknowledge that anyone was calling his name.

I read "Mr. Wiloughby's Christmas Tree" and then we got to do what the kids had been waiting for all month.....open presents! Of course I love to torture them so I made them sit and put their present down in front of them and they had to WAIT until everyone had theirs and then I shouted on your mark..get set... GO!!!!!!

I love Trevon's face, especially since he had opened up the 2 shirts I had given him.

Here are some very happy kids!

Cambria getting creative with the ribbon off of her present.........

Paul putting together the Nerf bow that I got Braxton.....

Braxton with his bow.......

Gunner taking a turn shooting the bow. He actually shot my Christmas tree dead center 3 times. It's a good thing I put the unbreakable ornaments on this year!

So that was our Christmas Eve. We had lot's of fun and the kids were very good. There are more pictures on my FB if you want to see the rest.