Christmas Day

I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning.  I woke up once at 3, 4, 5 & 6AM.  A little after 6, Tony rolled over and whispered to see if I was awake.  I guess both of us couldn't sleep!  With really little kids, they still sleep like normal so we decided to get out of bed and wait for them to wake up.

They woke up within minutes of each other.  Charlie and I went to get Joey and he was telling me all about how Santa had come and he heard Christmas bells!  A Christmas miracle, I guess :)
Santa followed a Gibson Tradition and wrapped all of his presents in special paper this year.  All of our family presents were in red, but the Santa presents were in blue.  

snacking on pop tarts

Santa put pop tarts in the boys stockings and it's a good thing!  Joey was starving and for the first 10 minutes he only cared about eating his pop tarts.

 little chocolate santas--whoo hoo!

Santa remembered and brought Charlie handcuffs.  Charlie was over the moon excited!  He really only asked for two things this year--handcuffs and Bucky the pirate ship.  After he opened those two things he was completely content.  It was fun showing him that we had more presents besides the two things he asked for.  

finally getting his "handcubs"
  locking mom up!

Charlie getting his handcuffs video

Santa brought Joey the Fisher Price Barn and a big bag of Mega Blocks

 

Santa brought lots of new movies

 locking dad up!

Santa put lightsabers in the stockings and they were a big hit

Joey and his new ambulance video

Charlie made daddy a present at his Joy School Christmas party--a popsicle stick Christmas tree ornament.  He was so proud to see his dad open it :)

Charlie & Joey giving mommy gifts

 Charlie and his bucky

notice how there's no wrapping paper in sight?  Yes, Tony throws it away immediately after opening a present...who does that?! jk love ;) kinda

playing in their new teepee!

 Tony makes me a gift every year and this year he included Charlie.  Together they made me this sign!  I started crying when I opened it because I knew how long they had worked on it.  During the week Tony would spend a little bit of time out in the shed and then on the weekends he and Charlie would take a couple hours working.  I could hear lots of hammering so I have been trying to guess, for weeks, what they were working on.  I absolutely love it. 

After we opened presents and had played for a bit, we went to the Gonzalez's home for brunch.  There were 6 families there together.  We had tons of great food!  The kids played together while the adults played games.  It was a ton of fun.  The majority of us live far away from family so it was nice to get together and be each other's family for Christmas day.  I love our sweet friends.

 heading to brunch

We had the rest of the day to play with toys once we got home.  This Christmas was magical.

 playing in the teepee

Dr. Charlie Gibson

This was our first year having a child who believes in Santa.  It was the best year ever.

I'm grateful for the Christmas season.  Of course the excitement of Santa and presents is awesome, but I'm thankful for the time to reflect on our Savior and the events around His birth.  I'm grateful for our Savior.  On Christmas Eve, Tony and I watched some Mormon Messages about Christ's birth.  I was telling him how emotional I was knowing that our children had a Savior.  I don't want them to experience pain--physical or emotional.  I wish I could go through all of that for them, but Christ has.  Because of Him, everything in their life can be made right. 
Loving Charlie & Joey has brought me closer to the Savior.  

Merry Christmas!!!