Oh How Lovely Was The Morning

Christmas morning came.
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The stockings were full of little surprises for anxious children who awoke at 3am!
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Mom and Dad threatened to phone Santa on his cell if children did not go back to bed.

When the exhausted parents were eventually coaxed from bed at 7am, down the stairs we all came, but not to the tree, but to the table we went.

We wrote down our gifts to the Savior for the new year.

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For posterity's sake I will record later what everyone's gifts were, but for now, we gave him things such as an increase in love for each other, less contention, more commitment to prayer and scripture study, more frequent temple service, more respect for each other and even more focus on our fasts. Annie even committed to continuing to sleep through the night!

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We finished by singing the Savior "Happy Birthday" and said an opening prayer for our Christmas morning.

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This was a wonderful experience.

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One I will not soon forget!

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Next to the half-eaten cookies and milk...Proof that a special visitor had been to our home.

Annie was ready in her swing, donning her hat and a smile!

Her siblings found her very own white chocolate snowman in her stocking and insisted that she hold it!

Annie received ONE gift...from "Santa" of course!

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Here are her THREE emotions to her new "BUMBO!"

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FIRST SAD...

THEN HAPPY...

THEN WONDERING JUST HOW LONG SHE WOULD BE SITTING ALONE...

Easton at his BIG moment!

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A new skateboard deck that hopefully will last longer than his last SIX!

Madison beams with her new phone.

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Life was unbearable with the "free" phone she had been forced to use.

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Now she can be seen talking on her phone in public!

A.J. and Easton are overcome with excitement!

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And for the life of me, I can't remember why, but it made for a sweet brotherly pic!

A.J. created a totem post custom-made for his father!

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John is beyond words, but not looks!

Ellie LOVED her super-sized coloring book from Santa!

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Who said simple things couldn't bring huge smiles?

The boys with the latest in their favorite football games. Mom says, "GO BYU!"

Ellie loves her little dog from Daddy!

Brooke LOVED her High School Musical 3 CD from her big sister, Madie!

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We exchanged names this year, and they got each other.

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Brooke had a special blanket made just for Madie, by our dear friend, Kippy!

The morning ended just like it had begun...with Annie smiling!

It was our simplest Christmas to date.

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After 14 1/2 years of being a family...it was one of my absolute favorites!

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Merry Christmas to all!