It's a Christmas miracle!

So Christmas was awesome, and it's time we let the world in on the fun. We invited ourselves to Paul's brother David's house for the festivities. We drove up on Christmas Eve and stayed until the morning after Christmas. A HUGE 'thank you' to David and Hillary for letting us crash your house, eat your food, destroy your expensive trinkets (oh wait, that was supposed to be a secret), and all-in-all for being such fantastic hosts. We had a blast. Nancy, John and Cory and kids also came, which just made it even more fun (and crazy...we had 7 adults and 6 1/2 kids...again, THANK YOU, David and Hillary!).

These kids LOVE their Grandma Nancy. She certainly spoils them, as any grandma should. Reece was a little outnumbered by the girls, but he didn't let it phase him.

In case the shirts didn't give it away (and her general baby-ness), this is Amelia's first Christmas.

Amelia and Uncle David.
John and cute, pregnant Cory.

Grandma helped the kids decorate cookies to leave out for Santa.

And the kids helped themselves to some good ol' fashioned bed-jumping (again, sorry to D&H).

Cousins!

What an awesome group of kids.

John and Paul engaged in the grossest marshmallow-stuffing contest I've seen this year. John won, but he made Paul bleed to do it.

I'll take the one on the far right.

Lining up to see if Santa really came.

Stockings are always my favorite part of Christmas morning.

Reece had been eying that red present for a week and had to open it very first. Fun fact: dictionary.com says that both "eyeing" and "eying" are correct spellings of the word, but Microsoft insists that "eyeing" is incorrect. That's how I traditionally spell the word, so I'm going to challenge Microsoft on this one (but I'll fix it in my original sentence because I hate the red squiggly lines).

Amelia actually loved opening presents. Yes, she did enjoy the wrapping paper more, but I was impressed with how attentive she was.

Paul is a good dad.

Here is it! Our AMAZING quiet book that Teresa lovingly and painstakingly made for us. My kids LOVE it (maybe as much as I do). Reece played with it for the entire Sacrament meeting on Sunday, which was a dream for me. Thank you, Teresa and family!

Reece got his first bike, and we have yet to determine if it was a good idea.

This is Paul's "swagger" look (apparently his deodorant is swagger-scented). That's why I married him. Yep...that look right there...sigh. I'm pretty sure he married me because of how awesome I look in bright pink pajama pants.

Amelia loves her grandma.

In fact she kind of loves everyone...

Including you! Merry Christmas and happy New Year!

Also, if you keep hovering over your mailbox waiting for our Christmas card to arrive, you can trudge your way back through the snow. I neglected to do a lot of things this Christmas season, and sending out Christmas cards was one of them. We didn't even get a family picture taken. But as soon as that's done, I promise I will post joyful wishes and "whatever-season-it-happens-to-be" greetings on our blog for all to enjoy. In the meantime, have a safe and happy new year, and remember that we love you!

Also, if you're wondering still what is the Christmas miracle I am referencing in my blog title, the miracle is that I blogged at all. It's a Christmas miracle!