Christmas 2010

This is a picture of my brothers dog, Cooper. Cooper and Caleb are good friends cause Caleb always feeds him!

As always, while we were in Utah we invaded my Brother, Daren and sister-in-law, Mandy's house. I think we may have overstayed our welcome this time cause we were there for 2 LONG weeks. And, my boys are loud, and make a HUGE mess. I am sure they had a party when we left! :) We appreciate Daren and Mandy for letting us stay there and being so hospitable to us all. Especially because while we are in town, all of our family come over and hang out all day and all night. I LOVE it and am so grateful that we have somewhere that is comfortable, feels like home and that we can spend quality time with the family.
This is Aiden looking at his bag of stuff he got in his stocking. Grandma and Grandpa spoiled us all!

This year we had Christmas at Daren and Mandy's house. Mandy had to work on Christmas day, so Santa came for Cutler on Christmas Eve. That along with our Christmas before we left and the real Christmas day, my kids got use to opening presents. They thought Christmas happened many times every week!

We started our Christmas tradition on Christmas Eve with our traditional German dinner of German potato salad, German rye bread, liverwurst, and German wieners. This is my most favorite dinner of the year. And, I am happy to say that my kids love it as well. Ernie on the other hand does not enjoy this dinner, so my mom always has chicken cord on bleu for him (minus the ham!) Our Christmas Eve dinner was delicious and a lot of fun just being together and eating yummy German food!

Here is Caleb and mommy. I had to hold him down and try to get him to focus so he would open his stocking presents.

Christmas morning, we woke up at 7:30. That was my children's Christmas present to us since they are still on TN time, so they had been waking up around 6.

When we woke up, we all went downstairs and hung out. Then, Daren and Brooke made cinnamon rolls. They were soooo yummy! After eating breakfast and getting ready, we waited for TG and Steph and my mom and dad. They finally got there around 11 or so. It is so funny cause it is so different from Christmas growing up. When we were growing up, the younger kids would be up at 5 and we would have to wait till 7 for our mom and dad to wake up.....but we are all big kids now.

Here are Aiden and Cutler playing with their new cars that they got in their stockings.
Little Keilani opening her presents.
Caleb kept his hands full with all of his little presents.
Aiden opening his present from Aunt Brooke. This is one of his most favorite presents. It is a Cars book and has a bunch of little cars. Aiden lines up the cars and takes them all over. He even has to have them in order to sleep at night!
Grandma looking pretty in her Christmas sweater. This is the only time she was really awake. After this, she started getting sick and ended up sleeping a lot of Christmas day. The next day she went to the hospital with pneumonia and the flu.
Cutler opening his present from Brooke.....Cheerios! :) Or whatever present she wrapped in there!
Alisa and Chaz had the most presents of us all. They brought all of their presents from each other (most were things they already knew about, but still wrapped) So, we spent a lot of time watching them open their presents. But, it is always fun watching others open presents.
Here are the kids playing with their books that grandma gave them. They got all sorts of presents including a lot of stocking presents, clothes, books, and a stuffed dog that can be used as a heat or cold pack. We also got spoiled with stocking presents, socks, candy, and money for our TV. Thank you mom and dad (grandma and grandpa!)
This is cute Loryn, my sister in law. We love her and her cute personality. She is a great addition to our family, and it was fun to spend our first Christmas with her!
Aiden is showing off his new stuffed dog from his grandma. He is also wearing his new slippers that he got from mom and dad.
Caleb really loves his uncle TG and was excited when his uncle would hold him!
Caleb is trying out Grandma's Christmas present-a new magazine rack. He is making sure it is sturdy enough and will hold all grandma's magazines.
He has to jump up and down.....
And, it gets the smile of approval! Yay! (ok, that smile kills me every time!)
And, last but not least, Grandma Reschke holding the most recent addition to her growing family-Tau Wesley. Tau is TG and Stephanie's baby boy and is so sweet and so cute! I love holding and cuddling him! If I was not in the midst of doing school and dealing with 2 boys in the middle of "terrible two's", I would think about adding another! :) But, that will have to wait for another day and another few years!

After opening presents, we enjoyed a yummy late lunch, early dinner of clam chowder and french dip sandwiches. They were both yummy!

This Christmas was so much fun. We had a good time just being with our family and spending time together to remember the birth and the life of our Savior. We are so blessed to have such a great and close family. It was nice to be able to spend time together and just relax. I am so sad that Christmas is over, but will always have great memories of this Christmas!