It is a Beckstrand tradition that Grandma and pa make a
big breakfast for everyone so we got dressed and headed over there. It
is a wonderful tradition because you get to meet up with everyone again
and hear what they got and not have to actually travel to anyone's
houses. At 11:30 we went to the Bloomington Baseball fields for the
annual Wells Family Homerun Derby. This year was a little different
because all of the infields were either muddy or still covered with ice
and snow or both. JoEllen set up the new Volleyball set that Emily got for Christmas and the kids played with that for awhile then Spencer decided to have a kick ball game on the
outfield grass. It was so much fun. The kids loved it.
First Spencer and Mason had everyone line up and then they chose
teams. It was hilarious. They picked one adult and kid each time. The
teams ended up pretty even. Ben was MVP
with all of his catches and David was a great pitcher. I think that
might become the new homerun derby.
James' face says it all. He was also the only one to kick a HomeRun every time he got up. I guess you have to pull that face for it to work. I'm going to try that next time.
OK, So check these next two pictures out. You can totally see who Evan takes after.
Spencer
It's definitely not this guy.
Nice catch!
This was a picture of Mason after Spencer kicked it right at his head.
Yep. That's us. Aren't we cool? We sure know how to have fun!
Every year I wrap up the entire banister and railing. But this year I didn't have any cheap paper that I wanted to waste. So we made them all sleep in Sophie's room and then we just taped the stairwell. It worked pretty good. I even booby trapped it with a bucket of golf balls. Sophie had mentioned that she had a key to the front door and that her screen to her window comes out easily so I also wrapped her window from the outside. I think this was the first year that they actually didn't peek! Success! I told the kids that we are doing that every year and Sophie said that would be horrible because she almost got asphyxiated from the boys toxic fumes.
The kids had a great time unwrapping gifts. I didn't even hear a single complaint. The boys all got new wheels and Sophie got a concert Ukulele.
Sophie gave the boys each a football. That way they don't have to share.
One day at Walmart David saw this Teddy, named it and was certain that Santa was going to bring it for Christmas. Well thank goodness it was Walmart. Santa can afford $20 anywhere else it's be $50. Look at the smile on that kids face!
Sophie had picked out both the hat and the jacket but the Swim Parka was a HUGE surprise for her. It even says Pine View Swim Team with the Panther head logo and her name on it.
Joel's Cowboys hat and clock. He actually got another Cowboy hat from his friend from work as well.
Here is Skye enjoying the boxes. She was loving it.
Holly took some AMAZING pictures of the temple when it snowed and was nice enough to email me some. I replaced our old picture of the temple and put this one in instead. It's it gorgeous?
I also bought me each of the 8 YW Value Rings back when I went to the Time Out For Women and kept them for me for Christmas. They are darling and I can wear a different one everyday.
I also found the super cute Mickey Mouse watches on Amazon for about $4 a piece and decided that I'd better get one in each color. So now I have one for each day of the week. They are darling. I love watches.
We saved the best box for last. It was from Shayne. She had filled it with all sorts of goodies along with a note explaining what each was and who it went to.
Josh and Joel got a tie that has a picture of Australia and Kangaroos. Sophie got a swim towel. Both Sophie and Josh also got kangaroo scripture cases that were awesome. Joel also got a painting that a neighbor of Shayne's painted of the path in Shayne's back yard. It's so pretty. He and the little boys also got a footy ball. It's an Australian sport like rugby and football combined.
She also sent a bunch of "lollies". Which is candy in English. We opened most of them and tried them but there was one called a Crunchie that no one liked. It was chocolate covered Honeycomb. We also didn't try the one called Cherry Ripe. But the rest were yummy. I loved the Carmel Tim Tam's and the ones called Fantales. They were like Milk Duds but they were individually wrapped and had a Guess Who or what movie on the wrapper. For instance the first one I read said things like name the actor who played a mutant that has razor sharp claws. Of course it was Australia's own Hugh Jackman. Josh's favorite was called Marvelous Creation. It was a chocolate bar with pop rocks and gummy bears inside it. It was crazy!! What is the funniest part of the whole thing was that Jan and Andy stopped by on there way home from Disneyland (where they spend every Christmas) and Andy freaked out about the "lollies". He instantly asked about the Crunchie and was so mad when he heard that we threw it away. Then he saw the Cherry Ripe and snatched it up for his Mom. She was born and raised in Australia. He said that those were rare to come by and that she'd absolutely love it. I was glad because we probably would have tried and and thrown it away. So Shayne, send more Crunchies and Cherry Ripes so we can give them to Christine.
Everyone got way more than they deserved. But Christmas only comes once a year.
Later that night we had dinner at my house with JoEllen and Kyle and the kids and waited for Skype on the computer to ring. 2 days earlier I found out that one of Shayne's dearest friends, Kyle Hendrixson, was home from his mission. So I invited him to come over at 7:30 and say hi to her. At first he said that he didn't want to intrude on family time so I said, "OK. Have a great Christmas" and he replied with, "would it be OK if I came over around 8 just for a couple minutes?" He figured we'd almost be done talking to her and he'd just say hi. Well, we talked to her for a half an hour then the doorbell rang...it was Kyle! It was so good to see him after 2 years. He looked great! I told Shayne to hang on a sec because her Christmas present was here. She of course didn't understand what I was saying and then Kyle came up and hugged Joel and sat down in front of the computer so she could see him. At first she didn't know who it was and then all of the sudden the expression on her face went from confusion to complete shock and joy. It was incredible. I wish I would have recorded it. You could tell that she wanted to jump through the computer and give him a big hug. They talked for a couple minutes and then the kids took over. He hung our foe about a half an hour and then had to leave. It was so much fun. He leaves for BYU next week so hopefully we'll see him in February for State Swim Team.
We were able to Skype with Shayne for 3hours and 57 seconds! It was awesome! She has the cutest accent that will be a lot thicker when she returns.
