Christmas Morning with the Higginsons
December 25th, 2007

After the festivities on Christmas Eve, we went over to Brian's parents' house to spend the evening. We worked it out to spend Christmas morning with the Higginson families, and Christmas afternoon with the Oviatt families!

We were very excited when we awoke Christmas morning to find Lampateeze in a great mood! Not only is he one of the cutest kids EVER, but when he smiles like he did above, you can't help but get in a great mood too!

And as if that wasn't enough to drive us crazy, then Alvin decided to show some MAJOR baby neck cleavage! Brian and I like to call that lovely, soft section of the neck "real estate." If we were to categorize Alvin's "real estate," his would be beach front property!

Now onto the gifts! We'll start with the kids because we started with them on Christmas morning. They were really excited to see all the gifts. This was the first Christmas that Vaughn could really understand what was going on, so we were excited for him to see the gifts we got for him. Here we are opening his first gift together!

We gave Vaughn some Hot Wheels cars and a race track. Here he is studying his new cars. He was actually totally excited when he opened the cars, but we didn't get a picture of it. Vaughn is definitely a "studier." He likes to really take a look at what he's got and how it works, and then enjoy it!


Once Vaughn was through studying, he wanted to show everyone his new cars. Here he is making sure we got a picture of one of them!

Moving on to Danny and Linda's kids..... Lorna got a variety of cute dress-up outfits. The second she opened them she had to try them on. Here she is getting help from her mom Linda. It was so cute to watch!

Then of course she had to model the dress for Grandpa. And yes, those are "high heels" she's wearing!

This may very well be my favorite picture of all time of Lorna. She also got a little fairy princess dress, and it looked GREAT on her! We couldn't figure out though why she was unhappy here until we saw Kalel nearby.....

He had stolen little Lorna's wand, and wasn't quite ready to give it back!!! No wonder the little fairy princess was unhappy! Doesn't Kal look so cute here?!?! (P.S. Kal got some really fun toys too, but I didn't get any pictures of him! Sorry Kal!)

Now moving on to the adults.... This picture is particularly funny to me because Brian knew exactly what he was getting! But for the benefit of everyone else, he pretended to be very surprised!

He was actually very happy to get this Star Wars book. And I was happy to get it for him! I love to read these kinds of books with Brian. I have actually learned quite a lot about Star Wars since I married him!

Since we're on the subject of faking it, I may as well tell you that I faked being surprised when I opened this gift! I knew exactly what I was getting too, but I was so happy to finally get....

....a grain grinder! I have wanted one of these forever! Brian was so nice to get this for me! And now I can grind the wheat in our food storage to use in making bread!

Now Robert wasn't faking in this picture. Julie gave him this bamboo curtain that she got for him in Hawaii when she went there to visit this summer. Robert was so happy about it and so surprised! He thought it was a perfect gift!

Robert wanted to really enjoy this gift so he took a few moments to smell the bamboo. He is really fun!

Julie really enjoyed the Jimmy Stewart book that Mom and Dad Higginson got for her. We all like Jimmy Stewart as an actor and a person. He was a good man who kept high standards. I heard a story about him once. I was told that after he would film a romance scene with his co-star actress, he would come home to his wife and make sure to be extra kind and sweet to her. (I'll add that Jimmy Stewart NEVER did any romance scenes that involved nudity or bad things). And of course, we all know and love It's a Wonderful Life, which he starred in. After that movie came out, Jimmy received thousands of letters from people letting him know the movie, and the role he played in it, had changed their lives. What a great story!

Just to continue with Julie....Robert gave her a really nice jacket that was hot pink on the inside! I guess he wanted it to match (sort of) her lovely pink pajamas! Lookin' great Julie!!!

And since we're on the subject of clothing, we'll add this picture in of Danny (Linda's husband). Here he is holding up a new guitar shirt we got for him. He is really great at playing the guitar. If you ever get a chance to, ask him to play for you and you won't be sorry!

I LOVED this picture of Mom and Dad Higginson when they opened their new Glenn Beck book. They love to listen to Glenn Beck, and were really pleased with this gift! (Glenn Beck is a conservative talk show, radio show host who happens to have recently joined our church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He is a really great guy, and openly talks about his faith on national TV and radio. We all have a lot of respect for him). We hope you enjoy this book Mom and Dad!

Dad waited until all the presents were finished being opened, and then he dove straight into the book. It was so fun to see him sitting there reading it so intently!

This is me being surprised, and I mean REALLY surprised! I couldn't believe what I saw when I opened this gift! It was a heavy duty meat grinder. Now if you read my blogs from August, you would have read how I had to borrow a meat grinder to make my Aunt Grace's famous apricot jam. Well, Mom and Dad went to looking on the Internet for meat grinders and they got me one shortly afterwards! They kept it until Christmas for me. Aren't they THE BEST?!?! Of course this grinder can be used for a lot of other things too!

So naturally I had to give Mom and Dad Higginson the biggest hugs! THANKS MOM AND DAD!!! I really appreciate it!

One more surprise I had.... Brian got me a cute set of eyeshadow and lip gloss from a local store called Icing. I was so excited because I've never really taken the time to learn how to use eyeshadow, and now I can! Thanks Brian!!!

I thought this picture of Robert holding Lorna was adorable! Lorna is obsessed with Disney's The Little Mermaid. So naturally she got a Mermaid doll for Christmas. She loved it! And Robert was happy to share in her special moment.

After all the presents were opened, Brian and I had to leave immediately in order to make it to the Oviatt Christmas. So this picture of Danny was taken after we left. I had to add this in because Danny looked so happy to get some breakfast! We were starved by the time we left!

After having Christmas afternoon with the Oviatts (which will be my next blog entry) we headed back to Brian's parents' house for some food and fun. Here's Riley and Brian in the kitchen preparing food together.

Our niece Riley is one of the craziest kids you'll ever meet. She was born to be an entertainer! And as you can see here, she has already mastered the ability to contort her face in weird ways!

The other kids took some time to play with this little sand box. It didn't have real sand in it, but a weird material that looked like sand and wasn't really messy. It was a lot of fun and the kids enjoyed playing in it for quite a while!

I had to show you this picture of our nephew McKay. He is always to kind to Vaughn, taking time to play with him and show him the ropes about being a boy. I thought he looked great with such a sweet smile here.

And finally we come to our "One for the Road" section. But this time it will be "Three for the Road" because I couldn't resist! Above is a picture of our little fairy princess niece Lorna. She was having a not-so-smiley moment, and it was ADORABLE!

Our "2nd for the Road" would have to be Vaughn. I have no idea if he was making a face or in the middle of saying something here. But whatever he was doing, it was cute!

And finally our "Third for the Road." Yes, it's the same picture we opened with. But little Alvin is so DANG CUTE, I couldn't help myself! Thanks for a great Christmas you guys!

Love, Lisa