Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

So in addition to doing our daily advent calendar, I thought that we'd start doing the twelve days of Christmas this year, too. Each day Hayden got to unwrap a Christmas/winter book, and he opened the last one on Christmas Eve. He enjoyed it, and anything I can do to stimulate even more interest in books works in favor of us both.

That afternoon we went to visit my Great Aunt Lila for a lunch and to exchange gifts. Hayden had fun, and he got to play with Selena (we'll call her his cousin although she's probably like his 3rd cousin or something close to that).

Opening gifts from Aunt Lila, and below is a set of Sponge Bob games from Selena.

This year I got to make the Christmas cake for our Christmas Eve dinner. It's a two-layer jello poke cake (the one we have every year). I just love to bake and decorate, so I had fun making it.

We had dinner at my Mom and Bob's house with Brooke, Travis, and Dan.

Hayden got to open a gift early from Brooke and Travis.

Hayden's hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa in his new Christmas pj's. We all got new pajamas that night, too.

Christmas Day

Here's a picture of the pre-unwrapping craziness. We have 3 little trees because I don't have the space to accomodate a large tree.

Christmas tradition dictates that you open the stocking before anything else.

Here's Hayden with all the fun things that he pulled out of his stocking.

This is the dog that Hayden asked Santa to bring him. He named it Lulu (and it's a boy, too).

The all important and ever popular Zhu Zhu pet with the house from Santa.

Some awesome Hess racecars from Hayden's great grandparents.

Playing with the neat jungle from Dan. It even has moving parts and sound effects.

So the last thing Santa left for Hayden was hidden and Hayden had to go on a scavenger hunt to find it. Above is the first note that was in the tree, and the Christmas trees are the rest of the clues.

Hayden found a clue in the refrigerator.

His gift was hidden in the bathtub. Boy, that Santa sure is tricky.

After pulling it out of the tub, Hayden unwrapped it and discovered a Smart Cycle.

Around 7:45 that morning, we got a call from my mom saying that they were on their way to the hospital. Brooke's water broke so it looked like we were going to have a Christmas baby. A couple hours later, we headed to my mom and Bob's house to finish the baking my mom started, and Hayden got to open our stocking. Above is a pic of him pulling things out of the big sock.

He also got to open Aunt Laurie and Uncle Wayne's gift. Hayden got some fun art supplies.
Brooke had baby Gage at 11:11 am, so shortly after that I packed up breakfast and drove Hayden out to Eagle Mountain to visit his dad. Then I headed to the hospital in Riverton.

Here's Brooke and Gage. He is such a darling baby boy.

Later that day I went to Dan's parents house to visit, have dinner, and play games. I wish I had some pictures, but just know that we had fun.

The following day Hayden got to open the presents from Grandma and Grandpa Barnes. A few days later he got to open this present (Gator Golf) from Brooke and Travis.