The Van Courts: A Salinian Christmas

For Christmas this year, it was, for us, to be spent with my side of the family... little did we know, that the family would decide to come and spend Christmas in Salina! It was SOOO fun to be able to celebrate at our home and to host everyone (thankfully, with Stef's beautiful new home, she was able to house some people & had mother's birthday and Christmas dinner!) Phillip and I just kept saying how incredibly blessed and loved we are to have such an amazing family!

I'll just post the photos and let them speak for themselves!

So, I know I shouldn't have, but I bought the kids some toy trains that I saw for $10 on an online garage sale site... it was just TOO good of a deal to pass up! They love playing with them! Unfortunately, Mommy is a terribly train track maker... that's Daddy's area of expertise :)

One of the first toys we opened was the Hungry Hungry Hippos game from Auntie Emily... it'd been so long since I'd played this game... it was so fun for everyone! (Unfortunately, today... we're down to about 5 marbles... but I'm hopeful we'll find them eventually!)

One of the biggest gifts this Christmas was the passing on of Phillip's Kegorator to Uncle Andy... I'd say it was a pretty big hit!

His first pour from the tap... I think he's quite pleased with his Christmas gift!

The maiden toast! Yes, even father had a glass to celebrate!

Gremom & Poppa carefully supervising the making of the reindeer food (oatmeal oats & glitter) that is then sprinkled in the yard... to keep the reindeer occupied while Santa delivers his gifts to the babies!

And our traditional reading of "Twas the night before Christmas" read by Poppa... listening to his warm voice read the lines of this book takes me back to when I was little!

A view of our very full living room! I put together a Christmas slideshow that played throughout Christmas Eve and Day of Holiday photos dating back to 2006... it was really fun to relive some of those memories (...like dropping our 25 pound turkey on the floor one Christmas morning!)

And all of the girls (plus Willie) had matching Christmas Jammies! (Callie refused to wear hers... but her eyes lit up when I brought out a Christmas Princess Gown for her to wear!)

And HOORAY for Auntie Nano making it to Salina, Kansas all the way from San Diego, California!

...and after the children were "nestled all snug in their beds while visions of sugar plums danced through their heads"... "Santa" was assembling one of his "some assembly required" gifts :)

Meanwhile the rest of Santa's helpers were busy watching the classic Griswold's Christmas Vacation.

When there are 12 people celebrating Christmas together... plus gifts from other sides of families,,, it really adds up! This was our mountain range of gifts!

Santa's gift to Callie, Elsa's Frozen Ice Castle (with the wrong balloon)

Santa's gift to Willie (a car carrying semi-truck)

We called this the Trifecta: Callie waking up early (never a good thing... sister is NOT a morning person... not even on Christmas), Callie being an introvert (not liking to be the center of attention), and Santa giving her the "wrong" Elsa balloon that she had asked him for... Mother's face says it all :/

Willie was as happy as could be with his truck! If he didn't get another toy all day long, he would've been completely content!

Mommy & Daddy trying to sell Callie on her Santa gift...

My happy man baby! (who randomly kept finding snickers chocolates ALL morning long... I'm pretty sure he ate at least 15 of them...)

Uncle Andy, as happy as can be with his ice cold from the tap beer... at 8:15am Christmas morning...

The awesome tshirt we had designed for Gamps...

Auntie Boo got some new headphones "Beats by Dre"... apparently it was a pretty awesome song that was on :)

Willie's other favorite gift... a tool bench! It's probably one of my favorites, when he comes out of his room, with a drill & a hammer & says "Mama... I work" :):):)