HO! HO! HO!

Christmas Eve finally came... no better than the day before, at least to start off with. More groggy kids, more groggy parents and still shopping left to do! AHHHHH! I thought we were done with this madness. I sent Luke out to finish up, actually I wanted to go but he insisted. He was gone forever! I spent the morning finshing up blankets I made for all the kids. Then wrapping some more. And loading the car, and getting bags packed and finally a shower. Yes, I finally got a shower in. Howeve more than anything, again, just wanted to go to bed. Thats me in that freaky picture, like i said, madness!


We finally went to my parents house about 430pm. Let the festivities begin!!!


Every year me and all four of my siblings and their families go to my parents xmas eve. We have dinner, do a few presents (pajamas basically), some dessert, we put the kids down, we all proceed to get drunk (an Erwin family tradition haha), play cribbage, and then we attempt to put together toys and stuff stockings. While all the while we are laughing hysterically, taking shots and falling in xmas trees (long story but a mighty good one!!) We all spend the night (yes all of us!) and we wake up christmas morning and open presents, have breakfast then everyone goes their seperate ways around noon.

Soooo..... we get to my parents around 5pm. Everyone is there. We eat a delicious prime rib dinner, potatoes, asparagus with hollondaise (my favorite), salad, corn casseroule. O it was so good! Jackson I think had more prime rib than me, and Wyatt almost ate an entire corn casseroule by himself. They were in heaven. Luke and I had dishes duty, somehow, with as many people there is in my family can sometimes take all night.... Then we opened presents. This year I made fleece blankets for all the kids so i wanted them to open them xmas eve so they could sleep with them. Each one was different and they all loved them, especially Kylee. She must have said thank you about 8 times throughout the night. My mom gave all the kids their xmas PJs too (a tradition)...

Then, My sister and her boyfriend, Bill, had an extra special present for my boys that they just couldnt wait to give them so of course it had to be "opened" on christmas eve... They were way too excited. So she sat jackson down in Kylees lap, told him she had his gift ready and she would bring it out. We all made him close his eyes (well actually Kylle covered them for him because the kid cheats terribly), and she brought out this.....

Meet Tuck. This is their new pet. Yes she got my kids a turtle, a LIVE turtle. But I did OK it before she bought it. I had been wanting to get jack one anyways so Ash took it upon herself. The kids LOVED it. They were so bummed when we finally locked him up for the night. The tank has a lock. How sweet is that!?! Tuck is the turtle on wonder pets, a show Jackson used to watch religiously, so he decided to name HER Tuck the turtle. Anyways, they were super excited. By the way, who knew turtles were so fast???? They love this turtle. Its hilarious to watch Wyatt crawl on the floor next to it. He even tries to say Tuck but it comes out funny.

We had a late night of course, but it was fun. Finally about 1030 we got all the kids to bed and it was time for the madness. My sister, Brandi and I got my mom to take a Jager shot which was absolutely hilarious. I videotaped the whole thing, and at one point during filming I was literally on the ground laughing. Luke, Ryan and Bill did a drunken toy assembly, but the next morning somehow Parker had a new wagon! We probably sound like the most raging alcoholics at this point! Haha So bad. Welcome to an Erwin xmas (I think it got much worst though when Luke joined the family!) However the kids were up super early the next morning (im talking 555am early, ewww) due to the howling wind so we were not very happy campers. So around 7am we opened presents and stockings and all the fun stuff. Oh ya, did I show you the tree before we started, here it is.
Ridiculous huh!! It is so bad every year, I cant even believe how many presents there are. Yuck!! The kids were SPOILED! So many toys. Wyatt was bombarded with dinosaur stuff, books, toys, pjs, movies. And Jack got lots of cool stuff, skateboards, bikes, army dudes, movies, clothes. It was the first year he really enjoyed openeing the presents so it was fun. Wyatt wasnt too into the unwrapping part. Just playing with everyone elses opened toys. However he did get a helmet he wore around for about the first half hour. It was funny. Santa brought Jack a bike, looks like a dirtbike... very cool!Sophia smilin as usual! He wore this helmet for probably a half hour!

Brian Westbrook baby!!! She thinks my tractors sexy!!! Lots of dinosaurs!!
Santa brought Wyatt a rocking elephant.. Still wearing his helmet! Jacks favorite present.. his guitar. He says "I do it all night long!" So funny to watch him rock out! After presents, we had yet another delicious meal. Again, I feel like I havent stopped eating. My mom made two egg casseroules, one with chorizo, and the other with ham. Sooo good. English muffins with cheese, and fruit, and sausage. OOOO it was good! The kids played with all their new toys, and pets. Then my brother took Jack down to the beach for a little while and Wyatt fell asleep on Lukes chest for a good forty five minutes, he was so pooped. We finally left about noon. When we got home all four of us took naps, the kids and I slept for almost four hours. I needed it, bad!

When we got up we got ready and were off to Ethan and Laris for our final celebration. We headed over about 5pm, however we didnt get there til after 6 becuase we were on a goose chase for an open grocery store. I was supposed to bring over salad, dessert and some wine. Well nothing was open. Finally we went to Longs drugs and got some oce cream and champagne and we went to TGIFridays and ordered a salad. Ughhh I was so mad. However, we started a new tradition. Last year the same thing kinda happened and Lari and I ended up ordering take out for all of us at fridays. So after getting another salad there this year we decided TGIFridays on xmas day is now a tradition of ours. HAha!! But we decided nect year we might as well go eat there!!!! Dinner was great, Ethan cooked a ham and mashed potatoes and green bean casseroule. The kids opened their presents which kept them entertained forever. And when we were done Lari wanted to make gingerbread houses, which is something else we decided to make a tradition this year. Its nice with all Lukes side of the family so far away on the holidays we at least have Ethan and Lari to share it with and start traditions with (hopefully soon we will get some of them out here!!). I think Luke and Ethan had more fun with these houses that the kids, IMAGINE THAT! Theirs were professionally built!! haha

Jackson and Lari...

Wyatt spent more time eating the candy than anything...Working hard...Such cool guys... hahaMine and Wyatts house... hence the "W"Lari and Jacksons house... hence the "J"Lukes "church"Ethans home with a 2 car garage and driveway....By about ten we were all pretty spent and we were on our merry way. We were all EXHAUSTED!!!!!!!!!!! It was so nicew to just go home and crash. Today was spent taking toys out of boxes and putting things away, literally all day. No joke! Thats how much stuff they got. So its over........ and I hate to say it but Im kinda glad. Dont get me wrong, i love xmas, but this month has just been crazy. I am pretty anxious for things to get back to normal around here. Hope you all had a merry one!!