And the children were nestled all snug in thier beds

This will go down as one of my favorite Christmas' so far. We really tried to keep the true spirit of Christmas in the front of our minds and it totally paid off.

The beginning of December we told the kids that this year they would be assigned one sibling, they were to be extra thoughtful to them for the month and in the end that is who they would be exchanging gifts with, AND the gift would have to be something they made (originally we were going to have them make something for all their siblings, but lets face it . . MOM is the one who ends up picking up the slack and 5 kids + 4 homemade gifts each = NO WAY!) Anyway what we did turned out great. They were all so proud of themselves and really more excited to see their brother or sister open the gift they had made then anything else. We exchanged homemade gifts first. (Jilli was left out of it this year, because, well she has no idea what is going on anyway)

Dalyn had Janie and decided to knit her a hat on the round loom. He did 95% of this project all by himself

Raegan was assigned Dalyn. A while back I started making a jean quilt, after cutting the squares I needed there was tons of jean left but only in small pieces, I asked Raegan if she wanted to make a doll quilt with them, she did so I gave her a template and she started cutting out squares and sewing them together. When we gave the kids this challenge she decided she would use the squares to make Dalyn a huge pillow (I have a body pillow he steals frequently). She did 80% of this project all by herself.

Ryan had Raegan. My friend found this awesome web site on making hula hoops, super easy and cheap. I took Ryan with me to her house one morning so he could make hula hoops for Raegan. He picked out the colors, but that was about the extent of his helping but he was so proud to deliver them to her that morning.

Janie was in charge of Ryan. One of my super crafty friends, who I steal all my craft project ideas from came up with this one, puzzle blocks. Janie helped glue the pictures on for one puzzle and that was it, they turned out way cute and Ryan loves them.

For a Family Home Evening one night we went to my friends house (same one who did the hula hoops, WOW I have awesome friends :) and made Christ centered neighbor gifts . . .
On Christmas Eve we had arranged with a senior care facility near our house, to come and sing for the old folks that lived there. My hula hoop, neighbor gift friend and her family met us there and we sang Christmas songs for the folks there and passed out more of the beautiful plaques! Thanks Camille, you guys are the best! (I don't have pictures of this cause I forgot my camera and I haven't been able to steal any yet from Camille :)

I made a bunch of these sets for family

I was inspired by a lady at church to make stockings for everyone this year and got 85% done with that project and decided I wanted to do them differently so I had to start all over then got 50% done with the new ones the day before Christmas Eve and decided I wasn't going to kill myself finishing them this year, they are SUPER cute, but you will have to wait until next year to see them, the 85% finished ones are going to be Christmas gifts next year :)

Santa of course came through, and this year everyone got some wheels. Since we have no furniture in our house it makes for a great skating rink. the kids took to stealing mine and Terry's roller blades a while ago so we requested that santa bring them all their own. They were a HUGE hit, I think the kids have only taken them off to bathe and sleep!

Chance even go some good loot

Nana and Papa gave the kids a Wii, SO FUN thanks tons The kids LOVE IT!

From Grandma Fairchild

And Kelli and Cha granted shopping sprees, here they are after the got to spend their doe. . .

Raegan used her money to plan and buy the stuff for a little girls party. She had a blast doing the invitations, buying the party favors and the game stuff and decorations! Thanks Kelli and Cha it was a huge hit!

Before Christmas we did our traditional drive around town to look at Christmas lights, and then ended the night with hot coco at the Black Bear. Janie's favorite was seeing all the Ho Ho's (what she calls santa) in peoples yard

Raegan wanted a white Christmas SO bad, she had all the kids convinced that it would not be Christmas unless it snowed.

Ryan was a firm believer, we had a few mornings of snow before Christmas and every time he would wake up and see snow he would come racing into our room just sure that it was Christmas morning. When it actually was Christmas's morning, we had to wake him up (what's up with that?) he looked outside and saw no snow he said "You said it was Christmas?" I said "It is Christmas buddy" Ryan, "But there is no snow . . . you were just kidding, huh?"

This year Dalyn wanted to install surveillance video so we could see once and for all if Santa was real. I told him that it didn't really matter where the presents came from, santa was a lot of fun to think about and not really was Chirstmas was about anyway but I hoped he would be a believer all his life, I am.

It was an awesome Christmas I hope we can repeat a similar every year only make each a little better and more meaningful