Christmas Day 2008

Christmas 2008 was as memorable as we expected it to be! Jerrod and I were still dead asleep when we were awoken by Bailey screaming that she had gotten her bike and camera. I thought the house was on fire or something- the way she was screaming!! We had told them to stay upstairs until we could get ready and grab the camcorder to take pictures of them coming down the stairs to see their gifts. It didn't happen the way we wanted but we all survived. I had to go and wake up Teague and he was quite confused. (It is usually the other way around- him waking us up- so it was nice to give him a taste of his own medicine. Hehe) But we really did make them all go back upstairs so we would have the perfect picture and video. They started singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus which made us super happy. We did talk a LOT about the reason for the season this year and they GOT IT!! Of course, they all came back down stairs running and we were very excited to find their "wishes" had come true.

Bailey got her pink Schwinn bike, a red camera, and a DS game. Emma got a ihome, an ipod, a bike and a magic set and Jackson got a screaming HULK, new nintendo DS (remember how he lost his?), a light saber and a DS game. Teague got a Little People race track and some tub toys. Santa also pulled through and left a few toys for the family to enjoy together. He left us an electric KEYBOARD! Do I see piano lessons in our future??! What fun!!

I made a photo book for each of the kids of pictures of them throughout the year. They had fun looking through them and noticing how much they have changed!!
After we opened gifts, we enjoyed the Hill's Christmas bread. Teague took a nap while we got our bags packed for our newest Christmas tradition...a visit to a local hotel for a Christmas brunch. Jerrod's friend Jeff gave us the idea when he told Jerrod how he and his family spend Thanksgiving at the Doubletree on Post Oak (they live in the Woodlands) and have lunch and spend time at the hotel as a family. Because they are in the heart of the shopping in Houston, they can go to the Galleria and they even get to see the Christmas tree lighting on Post Oak from their hotel room. We thought, "We should do something like this for Christmas!!". We made reservations at the Houstonian and enjoyed the Christmas brunch as a family and planned to relax as a family in the hotel room for two days doing whatever it was that we wanted!! More on that to come in another blog...