Christmas With the Sharps

We had a very good Christmas this year. Kids actually slept in until 8:30, which was a great Christmas present for us, and they had a blast sleeping in the living room by the tree (this is a tradition on Cliff's side). It is tradition on my side of the family to have cinnamon rolls for breakfast Christmas Day. I have changed it to orange rolls because my kids don't do cinnamon, and because they are so easy to make when you buy the pan of Rhodes orange rolls. I know, I am lazy. Last year, we tried to do breakfast first and then presents, which was a bad idea, so we switched it around and opened gifts first. Still a bad idea. I think I just need to give up on my children eating a formal breakfast on Christmas morning.
The boys were great with presents. Brandon was hilarious, because he would hold a present up and say, "Megatron? Are you in there?" He is obsessed with Transformers right now. Benjamin just thought it was fun to rip something and not get in trouble. He kept looking at me like he was thinking, really? You're just going to let me do this and not say no?
My parents will get a huge kick out of this pic. Yes, I did it. I got pants for my daughter that reach up to her neck. Just like my dad did when I was young. Only mine were maroon corduroys, not jogging pants. Stylin', I know.
Nadia was a little puzzled by this present. "What?! You got me Caprisuns?!" We kept telling her to open the box, and when she finally did, she had shirts inside. Really, I'm not so cheap that I would gift my child juice for her lunchbox. It can get hard to find boxes around the holidays, and sometimes I have to be creative. They are very sturdy and can hold quite a bit. Plus, you have the great factor of surprise. I would recommend them to everyone.

After Christmas morning was over, we went to visit with my fam and sis for a few days. My bro who is also up here and his fam came as well, so we had a pretty hoppin' party in Cache Valley. We had ham, turkey with all the fixings, and all the baking that I did Monday. This included a cake pan of brownies, 16 cupcakes (we had to sacrifice a few for tasting purposes), 3 dozen cranberry cake mix cookies, and a cake pan of rice crispies treats with dark chocolate M&M's. The next day was turkey enchiladas which are a family favorite, and I won't tell you any more because I ate way too much and would rather skip the embarrassment.

Instead I will end with another great holiday story that we retell every year. Okay, not really, but it is pretty funny. One year, I chose my brother Steven out of the hat for Christmas presents. There are five siblings in my family, plus our own families we now have, so it tends to be easier to just pull a name out of the hat and buy for one sibling. Anyway, Steven needed a new wallet pretty badly. So I found a nice one for him, pretty similar to what he had but with a different coin pocket that had a flap so his change wouldn't fly out everytime he opened it. I thought I would be clever and play a little joke on him as well. Steven is a big cereal fan, and the tops for him is either Cookie Crisp or Lucky Charms. Well, this season they had just come out with Chocolate Lucky Charms, which was every child's and dentist's dream. Steven loved it. So I bought a box of it, CAREFULLY opened the flaps on top, and jiggled everything around in there to fit the cereal and the new wallet. This was harder than I thought. They pack those cereal boxes pretty full. Christmas morning, Steven sees his present under the tree, and thinks it's a shirt box. Until it makes weird noises every time it moves (from the cereal). I loved seeing his face when he saw the box. He was so disappointed but tried to look happy. Not really. Steven, don't ever play poker. I kept trying to tell him after all the presents were opened to have some cereal, so he would open the box and see the wallet, but without success. The next day I was not at all subtle about it and told him to open the box already. He did it grudgingly, and then found the wallet after I told him what I had done. He was pretty happy then, and thought it was very sneaky.

So this year, My sis and hubby decide to go in together on something really NICE for me. She found a very cute Coach bag and told Cliff she thought I would like it. So he told her to get it. Side note: he had no idea what Coach was, and thought it was like a saddle bag or some old stage coach thing, until my bro-in-law Scott got on the phone and explained it was like the Armani of the suit world. Then the big epiphany of "Oh!" She sent it in the Coach gift bag they give you when you make a purchase, telling Cliff I would never guess it really was a Coach anything. She was so right. So now I no longer hold the title of Sneaky Sibling #1. Which means you all better watch out for next year!!!