A Very Merry LEGO Christmas!

Before Christmas, we celebrated at my parents house with my family. I didn't take a lot of photos, but we had a ton of fun! The kids received sleds from grandma and grandpa and were super excited about it.

 My favorite part was giving our gift to Ben. Randy and I bought Ben a pretty cool waterproof speaker system. We thought it would be fun to throw in a gag gift at the top of the present to throw him off. He was lucky enough to receive an original painting done by yours truly. It is TRULY one of the ugliest paintings I have ever seen/done in my life. His face was priceless. Randy and I couldn't keep a straight face though so Ben knew it was a joke right away. I told him it was a painting of who he should marry.

 Here is his "real" gift: a speaker.

 Here is our Christmas tree on Christmas morning.  It was really fun to have our first Christmas in our new house. We also had Paige stay with us and that was fun too!

 Our stockings were hung, and filled

 The kids were so excited to open presents, but of course, Randy sat them all down right in front of the unopened gifts and shared his testimony while telling them why we really celebrate Christmas. He also shared Rick and Eileen's gift with the children. Their gift was a donation made in each of the children's names to a Romanian orphanage. Randy showed the kids pictures of the orphans and gestured to all the gifts under the tree and asked the kids "aren't you grateful for everything you have? Do you really need any more gifts?" The kids agreed that they had plenty of gifts and were glad to see that the orphans could have a better Christmas because of Grandma and Grandpa's gift from them.  

After what seemed like forever I'm sure, we finally opened our gifts.

 Everybody got Lego's this year. I have previously banned Lego's from our house and regularly call them "baby chokers." Also, they are not fun to step on. Despite all the drawbacks to having Legos, I conceded that they are a good toy that can have endless possibilities as well as endless amounts of fun. The boys were excited, but nobody was as excited as Jacob was.

 Alyssa playing with Lily's new Barbie car

 Lily and her very pink Lego's

Jake reading to Alyssa under my favorite gift. A new minky blanket from Rick and Eileen. It is the softest, snuggliest blanket ever. I love it. Plus, it's mint green on one side and chocolate brown on the other. It reminds me of an Andy's mint. What's not to like?

 Here we are playing the game "Headbands." It was a gift from my brother Dan and his family. We had a fantastic Christmas!