CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

Wow another Christmas came and went so quickly! I swear this year just snuck right up on us!

Overall we had a good Christmas this year.
The girls got TWO secret santas this year which helped us out immensely! And thanks to family and friends who contributed to our Christmas otherwise Tyler and I would've gotten nothing, and we are soooooooo grateful to those who contributed to our Happy Christmas!

Christmas Eve we spent with my family like usual. It was fun. We missed my brother Glenn & his sweet wife, Andrea, and our little nephew Brayden. They were visitn her family this year in Georgia. She was happy to be home and I don't blame her. How wonderful!
Michael had to work all night at Dominos. That was very disappointing, made my mom cry. It's his last Christmas here before he leaves on his mission for 2 years to Japan in just 2-3 weeks!
It was probably our last Christmas Eve with my family, too, since Tyler's in the Army now and we'll most definitely be moved out of State.
We had a lot of fun, though! We had delicious dinner and a talent show. It was cute! The little girls are so fun to watch show off their little talents.
Then we opened presents from each other. It was great! Thanks to the love of family & friends my parents were able to get us all something. The little girls all had a blast! We held it at an LDS church and it's a big one so the girls had tonz of space to run around and play all night.

Christmas morning we did the usual. Open presents. We had a lot of fun seeing what the girls got from others.
They both got boots and church shoes and that was so wonderful because neither of them had either! They got PJ's, undies (the usual), an outfit each from grandma Pearson, a pair of cute shoes, some My Littlest Pet Shop toys, Sophie got a plush Tinkerbell, they got some art supplies and playdough, a doll and clothes for the doll, and some dollar store toys we got for their stockings. They had so much fun!

Then we went to my mom's for a little bit (30-60 min) and looked at their presents (they didn't get hardly anything. That goes with dad being without a job for about 1 1/2 years) and gave Benji one of his presents. Thanks to so many charitable people Benji and Mike Liu (like foster siblings) got donated a lot of clothes and gift cards and books and things. They had a good Christmas this year. I was very happy for them because Benji's mom died this year and he hasn't seen her for several years or been home to Mexico for many years and Mike's family is in Taiwan and don't have anything nor celebrate Christmas at all.

Then we went to Tyler's folk's house and had a delicious dinner of Tyler's amazing roast beef. WOW he's such a good cook! Go figure since he's going to be a cook in the Army. Lucky soldiers who get to eat his food!! Then the girls opened a couple presents and all the girls played and had a great time. Tyler and I got to play cards with his sis and mama and then we loaded up taking Tyler's youngest sis with us for the night.

I love Christmas! I used to be quit e the scrooge, but because of Tyler and ESPECIALLY because of having children, I LOVE it now. I don't think about myself during this time of year. It rotates around others and especially my children and I LOVE it! I love buying and getting and wrapping presents for family and friends and seeing their reactions to whatever they get. It's so much fun for me!

Tomorrow we are celebrating Lacie's 6th birthday!!! So far only ONE friend is coming and she doesn't even know it. She's such a social bug it's probably going to crush her, but hey one friend is better than no friends!! And she LOVES Isaac! (thank you Kristen!!!). Her young little aunt who's staying the night will be there, too, which I'm so glad for.

Christmastime just includes Lacie in it. It's her birthday on the 27th.

I gave Lacie the middle name of Marie for a few different reasons. 1. It's a major family name. My mom-in-law has it for a middle name, my grandma-in-law does too, and it's my aunt's name in my dad's family and I just idolize that amazing woman! 2. Then it's my great-grandmother's name (middle or first I'm not sure). My grandpa Pearson spoke so highly of her and I wanted her to be remembered through the ages so passed on her first and middle names to both of my daughters. 3. Mary = Marie. I thought of Jesus' mother and wanted to name my little precious daughter after the mother of Jesus and Marie is Mary and it fit perfectly.

Okay, that's it for now. My eyes are blurry, watery and burning (I really need glasses like something fierce now) and it's 3:15am and I need to get to bed so this is very rambling and probably slightly detached and I'm just so tired!

Merry Christmas everyone and THANK YOU SOOOOOOOO much to those of you and whoever the secret santas are that made our Christmas even fathomable this year!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much!!!