December 24, 2015-Christmas Eve with the Brocks

Christmas Eve with the Brocks!

(click here for today's pictures)

  • Sometime in the middle of the night Campbell climbed into bed with us.  I was too tired to ask her why she came or to move her back to her bed or to even roll her over into the floor.  She slept fine once in our bed and Robby and I manged to sleep some-though I did feel like a pancake when I woke up.
  • Robby is reading a new book so he snuck off to the bonus room this morning while the kids were waking up and I just laid around in my bed as long as I could.  The kids soon became busy with wrapping and pillow making (Reagan), kindles (the boys), playing baby dolls (the little girls) and trains (Whitman) that they forget about breakfast and I sure didn't mention it.
  • Eventually, Whitman pulled out the milk (love seeing the 2 year old walk around the house with a gallon of milk) and a box of cereal so everyone had a light breakfast.  We did pretty much full around most of the morning but when we started working we did laundry, dishes, gathered clothes for tonight and in the morning, had lunch (spam and cheese and crackers), did our What God Wants for Christmas box, cleaned rooms, read our Bible story and talked about an ornament one last time-when we kick things into high gear, we really mean it.
  • My Keaton and Campbell could never really understand that this was not Sunday and we were still going to church.  The could never wrap their little minds around today but they knew that we were ending up at Nonna's house for presents. 
  • Our first stop was Beebee's place for our Christmas visit.  She was in a good mood and the kids were all pretty perfect.  She was happy with her gifts-socks and a calendar with the kids pictures on it.  Then we were off to church for the candlelight service.
  • This silly weather was crazy hot and made things feel a bit non-Christmassy-and it probably didn't help much that church was so early this year.  Robby decided that we should live life on the edge and let Whitman stay in for the service.  He did very well the first few minutes and even went down to the front with all of the children.  Reagan took him by the hand and they went up to the front (we only hear him a few times) and right in front of them sat Campbell and Keaton who also walked to the front hand in hand.  The boys were of course right up front loving every minute of it.
  • When it was time for the kids to go back to their seats, Whitman told me that he was going to blow his whistle and we took that as our cue to get him out of there.  His whistle is not a whistle at all but a high pitched yell that he will do over and over until he decided to put "his whistle" in his pocket.  
  • Back in the service, my other babies sat dutifully through the little sermon waiting on the singing of Silent Night with the candles.  They could not wait for this part and this is what they will remember when they grown and gone.
  • After church we headed to Nonna's and Pops' house for supper.  While we waited on supper to be ready, we played a few rounds of leftover bingo (leftover from Anderson's birthday party-though now the prizes were from the pantry).  The kids are at an age right now where it doesn't take too much to really excite them and bingo did the trick-and kept everyone happy for just a few more minutes.
  • We ate our Christmas supper and then the kids could wait no longer for presents.  And again, here is quick rundown of what we received:
  • Robby-a big yeti cup, cokes, candy, candles, a plug and a dutch oven lid lifter
  • Tara-boxes, a cast iron skillet, cookbooks, and a soap dispenser
  • Reagan-a purse, wallet, shopkins, twister, swim mask and a legos
  • Anderson-legos, a football, xbox game and a nerf crossbow
  • Graham-legos, a basketball, xbox game and nerf gun
  • Campbell-cooking kit, little animals and their house, plamobil fairies, coloring book, doll and an outfit to match the doll
  • Keaton-legos, little mermaid doll, another doll, purse, puzzle, Elsa colors and paper
  • Whitman-trains, tracks, tractors, a tractor blanket, a Thomas backpack and shirts
  • After opening presents, Robby left for a bit. Graham was the only one who noticed that he was gone and I just told him that he was going to get him a puppy (he knew this was not the truth.) Actually, I had bought the same gift that Nonna had for Anderson so Robby ran to pick up something else.  Surprisingly, he was able to quickly find another similar item so all will be well Christmas morning.
  • After a bit of playtime and dessert after presents, we headed home.  The first order of business was spreading out the reindeer food and then Robby read The Night Before Christmas.  Then it was bedtime for the kids-we left their trees on tonight and minutes ago Robby went to turn them out and both of the rooms had already turned their trees off.  I guess they really wanted to go to sleep and didn't want for their bright trees to keep them up.
  • Now, Robby and I are just waiting for all of our little people to fall asleep so the magic can begin!

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