All the Christmas Day merriment

I was prepared for our Christmas morning festivities to start at some ridiculous early hour, but my children randomly slept until 7:45, which was blessed.

(Well, Will slept that long. Clyde apparently woke up much earlier but was kept in his room by Grandma Pam, who was bunking in there. Love Grandma Pam).

First reactions - the Hulk fists were a big hit.... literally AND figuratively. (Go ahead, laugh, I know you want to.)

 Jack was first intrigued by his new shoes and then very VERY opposed to them and then ceased that opposition when he realized he could still walk with them on :).

 Forget the kids, I'm pretty sure this is the cutest picture of the whole day.

 

 Isaac was a little wary his crazy cousins and their antics so early in the day, but he got on board with the whole Christmas present thing pretty quick.

 

The rest of the morning was pretty busy: lots of lego building and eating (quiche from Costco, yum!) and game playing and present-opening and NAPPING (I regret nothing) and such. Ohh, my mom gave me a gift card to D.I. Again, love Grandma Pam.

 We loved having Quinn and Eden and Isaac party with us!

And my mama too! We totally spaced getting a picture with all six grandkids while Sam was in town, but here's a shot of her with all four grandsons... not quite as cute without Bailey and Hazel to pretty it up :).

 

 Oh, the boys' presents to each other were fun. Will has become obsessed with months and days and birthdays, so Clyde gave him a calendar! It is now one of Will's most prized possessions; we went through and marked preschool days, swimming lessons, church, the birthdays of various family members and friends, etc, etc, and the kid pores over it on a daily basis.

 

 And Clyde loved the flashlight and special homework pencils Will bought for him - the latter of which inspired this hug. They are seriously the sweetest brothers ever; I'm SO glad they have each other. I'm also SO glad and only a little bit jealous that they have those eyelashes.

Later in the day we headed over to meet up with my dad and his extended family for a bit.

 It's not a Braden family gathering without some basketball; I have some ridiculously tall and talented cousins and first cousins once removed. Grandpa even got his hands on the ball for a little bit!

We were so happy that Grandpa was there so that we could get this four generation shot of Braden men - Isaac is the only great-grandson (so far) to bear the Braden surname.

Jack and I hung out with Grandpa for a bit too. Jack was actually due on my grandpa's birthday (today!) so they're almost birthday buddies. They had fun checking each other out :).

Chuck and I didn't stay too long (we had left our coughing older sons at home with my mom) but it was fun to see everyone there - and even some people who weren't there! My dad made enlargements of some old pictures and my uncle Brent loaded a bunch of old shots onto a digital picture frame, so there were lots of laughs as we all checked those out.

It was starting to snow as we headed home and by the time we arrived the roads were getting pretty bad. My mom attempted to leave but was diverted at the freeway entrance (they closed it for a bit due to accidents) so she ended up coming back for another night. Holly and Creed were also bumped off the freeway on their way home to Boise, so they stopped at our house for a bit, hooray!

It was soo fun to see them and catch up for a bit before we sent them on their (snowy) way. Love you guys!

Then we had just enough time to facetime with Chuck's parents for a bit and with Sam and Terri and their girls before calling it a [merry Christmas!] night. Such a good, tiring day!