Christmas Eve in Omaha

The kids wanted to go to Omaha for Christmas for two reasons. One: They absolutely love their grandma (and what's not to love!). Two: Grandma likes to open up presents on Christmas Eve, where as dad (aka "da grinch!") won't let them open presents until Christmas morning at home. So, we rolled in around 5:00 to Omaha and I got to unload the entire car in the very cold (it said it was 9 degrees). Grandma Kay and Aunt Sandy were there, as well as Matt. We ate the traditional chili (Hannah was very happy there were no beans in it), and then got to the business at hand of opening presents. It was a lot of fun. Merry Christmas Eve!

Jaeden was amazed that Matt's phone could give them all sorts of information about Super Bowl VI, where the Chiefs won their only championship. They even found out what the attendence was at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans: 80, 562, in case you were wondering (and yes, I forgot what it was and Jaeden just told me. He cares about these things, and so should you!)

Logan in one of the rare moments where he wasn't going Chuck Norris crazy on all of us. Here, he is just plane crazy. But cute!

Hannah and Annika reading the 12 days of Christmas.

The Family. What a great looking group! We sure missed Mark and Mari, though.

Getting the presents. Can you feel the excitement!

Hannah got a camera. She was so excited! And it was so much more cool then the hair dryer she got to open up the night before :)

Wendi opened up a present containing the Smurfs DVD that made her laugh hysterically. I won't explain it here - you can call her up and ask her why!

Here is the video. Yes, you really do need to call her up and ask her about the story behind this!

I got Wendi a bathrobe from the spa we went to in New Zealand. It is so nice and warm!

Uncle Matt with the kids. He got Annika and Hannah Webkinz (they loved them!) and Jaeden some football cards and a binder. He said it was one of his three favorite gifts. He is wearing one of the other favorite gifts from Mark and Mari - a Bret Farve NY Jets jersey.

Annika with a Dora Wii game from Mark and Mari. She loved it!

Liam playing with cars. You expected something else?

Logan playing with cars and some Santa nesting things. He loved those Santas!

Liam with some games for the VTech Grandma Cheryl gave them. They love Wall-E

Uncle Matt, Grandma Kay, and the buddies. The twins loved their presents! It was great to see our relatives!

And last but not least, the Pajama Elf came and brought the kids pajamas. Wendi and I got pajamas as well, showing that the Pajama Elf isn't some ageist snob like Santa, who hasn't brought me anything in almost twenty years. The twins didn't like theirs, because they hate shirts with collars, but they did like that they had Cars on them. Jaeden's was sports, of course, and the girls had reindeers on them.

So, the kids went to bed with visions of sugar plums in their heads. It was such a fun day, where we got to see all the grandparents and open up tons of presents and eat really good chili. From our family to yours, Merry Christmas! Now I have to leave, because we got Wii Music for Christmas and I want to play!

jed...