The Hutchinson Family: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

The excitement was contagious as Christmas Eve started and the kiddos were FINALLY realizing that today would be the day to open some presents! We decided to open presents that afternoon, so we weren’t opening presents and then trying to get everyone ready for bed while they were playing with their new toys.

They received many wonderful gifts! Their big present from Mommy and Daddy was a Leapster Explorer. They are still getting the hang of the new games, but I know they will LOVE them and won’t be able to put them down, soon enough!

Church gave us cake mixes to make cakes for Jesus’ birthday, so we got to work and made a cake from Riley and cupcakes from Ryan.

We headed to church and left in what we thought was plenty of time…. We didn’t even get off the interstate before the traffic began backing up. We didn’t get into the service until 20 minutes after it started. It was so disappointing, but we at least got to hear a wonderful message in the 4th overflow room.

After church, we headed to China Inn for our annual Chinese food dinner. They were terribly understaffed and the kiddos were not real excited about sitting at a dinner table. Overall, it was a less than impressive couple of hours. We rallied when we got home and iced the cupcakes and cake for Jesus’ birthday.

We left a cookie and 2 cupcakes for Santa and even a little reindeer food for Rudolph and the others.

On Christmas morning, we found a note from Santa!

…and more toys!

toys!

toys!

toys!

toys!

Ryan and Riley were so excited when they walked downstairs to find all the goodies!

Santa even remembered the Shrek Toy!

…and the Dora doll!

and Barbies!

We had a great brunch and then Uncle Scott had to head to the airport. With the weather turning bad, they cancelled many flights. His was one, but he was lucky enough to get on another flight and made it out before the snow began.

We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus!

and ate cupcakes!

And ended the day with a blanket of beautiful white snow! By the next day, when I took this picture, most of the snow was gone, but we did indeed have our very first White Christmas!