Christmas 2010

4th Row: Fernando & Ruth, Eric & Charlotte, Me & Dave, Abigail & Casey
3rd Row: Mom Greer, Dad Greer
2nd Row: Lia (Charlotte), Jett, Samuel (Ruth) and Maleise (Charlotte)
Front row: Cruise, Duke (Charlotte), and Gabriel (Ruth)

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! This was the first year Cruise understood what to do with a wrapped present, so it was really fun to watch him shred through wrapping paper to find..."A BOX!" He was really excited to get boxes, but even more excited to find that there was a toy in each box as well.

My sisters were all able to come up for Christmas this year, along with their families of course, and it was such a blast to see them and hang out! Christmas Eve was pretty low key. We got together and had the traditional spaghetti and meatball dinner. Mom and Dad provided the spaghetti and sauce, and I brought the gluten-free noodles and gluten-free meatballs (my sister Charlotte is gluten-free as well).

Lia

Eric, Maleise, and Charlotte

Duke, Cruise is his biggest fan.

Maleise and Dave doing a puzzle.

After dinner we went home and gave the boys each their present from us. Cruise got a stuffed Pooh Bear and Piglet, and Jett got an Eeyore and Piglet puppet. Jett was happy until he saw that Cruise got Pooh and he didn't. So we had to dig up another Pooh Bear for him. I'm gonna say that about 75% of all the Christmas presents we got them were from Savers, 23% were Dave's and my old toys, and 2% were brand spankin' new. So the Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals were all mine at one point. I had kept such good care of them, that they still had their tags on them.

Really? Piglet? You couldn't give me Pooh, huh?

If you look carefully, in the background, Jett is staring with a hurt look on his face. 

Now I'm happy.

The boys gave Dave his present...Mommy helped a little.

There was a little challenge for Santa this year seeing that Cruise sleeps in the living room where the tree was, so I was forced to get creative. I spent an hour or two tracing and cutting out footprints leading from the chimney to the playroom in the basement. The nice thing about this was that all the toys were pretty much where they belonged to begin with, so cleanup wasn't a big hassle.

Following Santa's footprints.

Rhino the Hamster. Pure joy.

Yes, that is a $50 Batmobile. And yes, I spent $10 for it at Savers. I rule.

Watching their Little People movie that came with the Wheelies toy.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

After opening Santa presents. The craziness continued at the Greer's house:

Jett is obsessed with this bear. It reads the entire story of "T'was the Night Before Christmas".
It moves its mouth and head. At first he was deathly afraid of it, but now he looks for it whenever we come over.

Gabe (Ruth), Maleise (Charlotte) and Sammie (Ruth) having a tea party.

Cruise playing with Duke's toy.

Cruise and his best friend Duke.

It really was an excellent Christmas. It was so nice to have my whole family together. And to top it off, Abigail got an AMAZING Christmas present in the form of an engagement ring! And those of you who know me best, know that I love planning parties and weddings, so I'm having a blast! :)

The Last Six

On the 7th Day of Christmas, my true friend gave to me: Seven dollar meals cookbook.
           This was a cookbook named, "The $7 a Meal Quick & Easy Cookbook". Very cool.
On the 8th Day of Christmas, my true friend gave to me: Eight types of animals.
           This was a package of farm animals that has an adult and baby animal of each kind. The kids got to it                 before I could get a picture.
On the 9th Day of Christmas, my true friend gave to me: Nine pound of tangerines.
           Pretty self-explanatory. :)
On the 10th Day of Christmas, my true friend gave to me: Ten cars a racing.
           The boys were nuts over this one. They each got a five pack of Hot Wheels cars.
On the 11th Day of Christmas, my true friend gave to me: Eleven puzzle pieces.
            I am a huge fan of puzzles. This one was super cute. It has car puzzle pieces and they're magnetic. A little tow truck with a magnet moves the pieces around.
On the 12th Day of Christmas, my true friend gave to me: Twelve Apostles' testimonies.
            This is a DVD from the church called Special Witnesses of Christ. AWESOME DVD. I highly recommend it.

I thought they were going to let us know who they were, but I was wrong. So, whoever you are, thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts. We are so blessed and truly appreciate all the time, money, and sneaky skills that went into serving our family. We love you!