FA LA LA LA LA

CHRISTMAS MORNING

Chase woke early and made sure no one slept past 5:30. Luckily the big guy did make a stop in at our house and left the kids all a little something.

Kelsey didn't get that SUV that was on her list, but she did get a new i-phone!

I think Chase got just about everything on his list.

Santa brought him a gaming chair, gaming headset, charging station, a few new games, and a 2 year membership to x-box live.

Sadi didn't really know what she wanted for Christmas, but Santa left her a few surprises.  She got some paint and canvas, paper, colored pencils, lots of glue, new Lego set, and some new designer books.

She was most excited about this fashion studio she said she had been wanting forever.

Once we had dumped our stockings and saw everything Santa brought we did some gift exchanges.  Kelsey got some new clothes and gift card from Mom and Dad.

Daddy got some cologne from Kelsey, a tin of nuts from Chase, and Sadi gave him some of his favorite things.

Chase gave Kelsey a Starbucks gift card.  She gave him a new x-box video game.

Sadi was thrilled Chase gave her a candy penguin, and this huge Hershey kiss which sadly only lasted a few hours before it was devoured!  She gave both Kelsey and Chase Pop sockets for their phones.

The kids gave me a Hydro flask, and Kelsey made me this wall hanging I can't wait to hang.

Kelsey gave Sadi a whole penguin themed gift.  She got a penguin blanket, penguin movie (the pebble and the penguin), penguin face mask, and penguin chocolate...so cute!

Matt had to go to work for a few hours after breakfast.  Kelsey spent most of the day setting up/texting on her new phone.

Chase entered his own world via the x-box and was gaming with his friends online.

Sadi was a little whirlwind all day, starting a project and leaving it to start another.  She was painting,

then dumping Lego's to build,

but most of the day was spent designing dress after dress.

 

Matt was home by early afternoon and we had his Uncle Rick, Aunt Linda, and Grandma Llama over for dinner. 

Sadly Chase passed out soon after they arrived and slept the entire time they were here.  We tried to wake him several times with no luck. 

It was a Merry Christmas, and to all a good night!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve finally arrived!  We woke that morning to red and green streamers all over our house...some little elves were a bit excited about Santa coming.  I neglected to get a photo however :/  We broke out a Christmas puzzle and worked on that for a few hours.  As much as I curse at these, I can't seem to walk away from it unfinished.

The girls baked cookies we would later decorate for Santa.

We had a small feast of sandwich's, chips and dips, and other appetizers for dinner.

And finally we were able to justify our official "eve" starting with our traditional family games.  The rules are simple every year each one of us comes up with a Christmas game to play.  This is my favorite tradition!  This year the kids prepared all on their own.  Chase had us play two versions of Christmas Mad Libs.

Sadi had secretly hidden candy canes all over the house, and we had to search out all her hiding spots to find the most.  She was also the photographer for this game :)

Kelsey made a rolling dice snowman game.

We had to roll the dice and complete our snowman first.

Chase was the lucky roller at this game and completed his snowman first.

My game was Christmas Family Feud, which in true Denning style there was lots of arguing their "correct" answers.

I missed getting any photos of Matt's game which I suspect he put together literally minutes before playing.  He had us tossing snowballs like an egg toss.  Once we finished games we decorated cookies for Santa, and a few for taste testing.

I had one family gift that I let them all open, which I was really excited about.

I bought matching Christmas Pajamas for all of us.  However when we opened them, it was quickly evident Chase's was WAY to small!  Although I felt bad, it was hilarious, and we all had a good laugh.

He was a good sport and at least let us snap a few photos before he lost total circulation in his body.  Daddy let him have the shirt off his back...literally so he wouldn't feel left out. #momfail

 

We were excited when the big guy made a surprise stop at our house.  Somehow Daddy always seems to be in the bathroom when he stops by :)

He gave each of the kids their very own echo dot, which they were all very excited for.

We snuggled up and watched our traditional Christmas Eve movie, Prep and Landing.

We put up the stockings, and then said our goodbye to our elves.

Sadi could not get in enough hugs to these little guys.  She even made them a special book of memories to take back to the North Pole with them.

I think she will miss them most of all!

And with the night winding down we put out our cookies and milk for Santa and hoped all the kids would soon be nestled snug in their beds.

Christmas Countdown

It seems like there are so many things happening the weeks before Christmas/break it is hard to remember it all with the hustle and bustle. I went as a chaperone with Sadi's 5th grade class to the Discovery museum in Reno, where I was in charge of a group of these 5 sweet girls.

Both the kids had friends over for the night.  I bought Gingerbread houses for them to decorate together. 

The girls got pretty silly while building theirs.

The boys threw out the directions first thing....then had building difficulties.

They got sidetracked when the Star Wars movie came on t.v. and I think it took them 2.5 hours to finally get that house built.

In the end, they both turned out pretty nice.

 

Later that week Chase and Sadi decorated their own Gingerbread men.

 

We made gifts for their friends at school.  For Chase's friends we made a gift every teen loves...food.  I bought chips and nacho cheese and we tied it up with a gift tag:  "This is Nacho ordinary gift, because I'm Nacho ordinary friend".

Sadi chose to make a gift that we have made in the past for her friends,  Snowman made with chocolate bars and some fuzzy socks.  For the teacher's this year I kept it very simple with a cute tag tied to a Starbucks gift card.

Sadi was extremely excited to get to school for her class party and to hand out her gifts to her friends.

I joined her class later in the afternoon for their party.  Besides having a massive amount of goodies to eat, her whole class participate in a secret Santa gift exchange. 

The previous week each student was given a name with a questioner filled out with things their secret person liked/disliked, needed, etc.  Her secret Santa bought her some chocolate and this big stuffed moose.

The day after school break began we surprised the kids with tickets to go see the movie JUMANJI.  It was part of their gift from Grandma and Grandpa Denning.  It was special since we hardly ever go to the movies as a family, and it was such a funny movie!