Christmas Morning 2014

Christmas morning the boys slept in until just before 7. As soon as we heard them in the hallway, we sprung out of bed to catch them going down the stairs…

I love their joy! 

For some reason this video doesn't seem to always work. If it doesn't, copy and paste the link below and it will take you to the video on Youtube. Sorry about the glitch. I just can't figure it out.

http://youtu.be/7CJ0_-k2IcI

We started with stockings.

Nolan is very into the Fly Guy book series. He checks them out from the library at school almost every week. He was so excited to see a little Fly Guy in his stocking! He'd never seen one before, so he knew it must have been made special in Santa's workshop. 

 Brooks was so happy to open his stocking. He smiled the whole time. 

Showing off his Pete the Cat. Those are some of his favorite books! 

Pete the Cat even played a little hockey. Brooks got these mini hockey pucks in his stocking. It was cool because he ended up getting a Blackhawks one in his pack. 

Heath could hardly stand the wait! 

He pulls the funniest faces! We call him a "Rubber Face" because he's always cracking us up with his looks! 

After stockings the boys hunted for the PICKLE ornament! A Johnson Family tradition.

Brooks thought he spotted it right away, but what he was pointing to was not the pickle. And although we applauded Nolan's aggressiveness, almost knocking down the tree, Heath was the true winner! Again! He's got sharp eyes! 

And of course, he was thrilled to win a jar of pickles! HA! 

But Santa is so kind and also brings all the boys a pickle prize. 

Just what Nolan had asked Santa for! 

One of the first gifts they wanted to open was from the Sloothaak family! 

A fun new Lego set to work on as a family! Thank you guys! They love it! 

As you can see, they did not put their Snackeeze down all morning! 

Nolan wrote a poem for us at school. 

 I had already seen it, because I helped all the kids in his class wrap them and address them while I was volunteering one day, so Nolan sat with Daddy while he opened it. 

It was so sweet and perfectly Nolan. Ha! Loved the picture of him as well. These are the gifts you treasure forever. 

Uncle T. & Auntie Laura sent the boys these Nike shirts. They love them and have worn them a ton already because they are so comfy. 

They also got the guys Mini Figure packs and Minion packs! They love all these little guys! Heath especially loved this Pizza Dude! 

Brooks got a Jake Duplo set! So fun! 

Mark showing off his sweater from the Professor and his wife! 

 Brooks got some Paw Patrol cars from his brothers! 

He was happy playing with all his new toys while others opened gifts. 

 Heath got a Mikey Half Shell Hero from his brothers. 

Such a silly guy! 

We bought the boys each a new Broncos jersey. We learned from our previous purchases, to spend a little more and buy high quality jerseys. They last longer and look nicer when consecutive boys wear them. That's the good part of having all boys, we can hand down a lot of clothes. So sometimes we splurge on high quality because we know they will get a lot of use! The older two boys have the same size head. So we bought them each a new hat too. Brooks never keeps hats on his head, so we didn't get him one. Plus he can wear the hats N & H grow out of. 

Nolan decided to get Mark some new flip flops! 

And I made Mark a new calendar. I make him one each year. But this year, it will be hanging in his new OFFICE! We are so proud of Mark! He just got a promotion and along with it comes moving out of a cube! He's happy to have a little more space now! 

Then it was FINALLY time for Santa presents! Heath went first because he just could not wait any longer! 

Then came Nolan…

And then came Brooks…

keepin' it real here…

He had been playing in the other room and was over opening presents. But we dragged him back in to open his Santa gift and he just wasn't having it. He was busy playing and didn't want to stop. Ha! So this was the reaction that we got! 

But it didn't last long when he realized what it was…

He loves his new hockey set! Just what he asked Santa for. 

We had the best time slowly unwrapping gifts and playing and drinking egg nog and listening to Christmas songs. It was so fun! 

After we opened up all of our gifts to one another, we Skyped my parents and Mallory & Bob. They had gotten together at my Mom & Dad's house to exchange gifts and have brunch. 

This is a terrible shot but it's Skyping in action! We were so happy to "see" my family on Christmas! 

I only took a few pictures, because I was manning the computer. 

Brooks opening up his stocking from Grandma & Grandpa. 

Nolan opening up his TMNT Lego set from Auntie & Flobby! 

Mark took this picture of me with a bunch of my gifts. We always used to do this with VEEHMMS. We would pile all of her gifts around her and take her picture. Apparently I am starting the tradition with myself now. In honor of our amazingly fun Grandma. This was our first Christmas without her and she was definitely missed. 

The boys loved all of their gifts. Thank you Johnson family for loving them SO well! 

When we were done Skyping, we played and played and played! 

Then it was time to start cooking and getting cleaned up for dinner that night. We were having Mark's family over. But I'll save that for another post. 

I think this was our first Christmas since having kids that we weren't either in Chicago or didn't have my family here with us. So it was definitely different. But special to have this time with just our little family of 5. We are already starting to dream of next Christmas…and we think we are going to try to pull off a little Disney World vacay with (hopefully) the whole Johnson fam. Stay tuned for details…