Merry Christmas! Ready or not, Christmas came to the Jones home. Beside last minute wrapping, we actually got to bed at a pretty decent hour. Robert was unhappy with Ethan's latest stance on Santa and so he set up an elaborate ruse to win him back to the land of magic. As soon as the kids woke up they tumbled into our bedroom, begging to go downstairs. As they crowded by our bed, Robert pressed a preprogrammed button on his phone. Suddenly, from down in the living room, a booming, jolly voice thundered, "Merry Christmas! HO! HO! HO!" and just for good measure, the button was pressed again and the jolly voice repeated itself. The kids went dead silent.

 We all stared at each other until Alaina whispered, "It's Santa!" Pushing past each other they scrambled downstairs to catch the sneaky fella, but Santa was too tricky. Even though the kids observed that the sound came from the opposite side of the house than the Christmas tree and stockings, they quickly explained it away by saying Santa came down one chimney and up the other. I guess even Santa needs to shake things up sometimes. Regarldless of the unconventional exit, all the kids chatted happily about nearly catching Santa. (Alaina was extra concerned for the other kids, since Santa was apparently running behind schedule. That is, until reconverted albeit skeptical Ethan deduces that we were probably Santa's very lsat stop. Lucky us. In a bit of a awe-struck stupor, the kiddies wandered back to the Christmas tree. Only the sight of presents was able to break the Santa spell and the kiddies gleefully jumped into delight of opening gifts. Yeah for Christmas!

check out Alaina's face in this one.  She was really surprised.  ;)

Daddy helping Jason open his presents.

Wild and crazy presents for Rob - Socks.  (hey, he really, really needed them.)

I got yarn.  I decided to teach myself to crochet.  We'll see how that goes.

Mom and Dad Jones sent this awesome Tetherball set that we played with, in the house.  We have since set it up properly outside, where it still gets lots of use in the chilly weather.

The tetherball made Jason laugh and laugh.  I only started filming him on the tail end of his hysterics...so he was already calming down.  He is such a sweet boy.

The flying turtles were a big hit for the kids.  Jason loves getting rides.

Even Bella was allowed in for the Big day.  See that tiny bone we got her?

My parents came down right after Christmas for a few days, so we spent our time eating and doing puzzles.  Best way to spend the holiday.  Lora and her family came up for a couple of days too, and then followed Mom and Dad back up to Utah to visit them.

Here is everyone on a walk.

Isn't this a great picture of Dad?

Baby, it's cold out there...

Silly me, I didn't really get any good pictures of Lora and the crew, but here is a funny pic of Little Naomi getting ready to catch her Daddy, Mark.  

Colorful twins.

Mom and Laina watching Little Women.  I love watching Laina, watching movies.  She always gets so into the story.