..merry christmas!..

dear finn,

merry first christmas!!! santa claus came and he spoiled you (and all of us) silly. we attended church, where we partook of the sacrament, and reflected on our savior jesus christ, and the sacrifice he made for us by coming down to this earth those many years ago. sacrament meeting was so special today...the spirit was even stronger than it always is. the musical numbers brought tears to many eyes, and it was the perfect way to celebrate this blessed and happy day.

now, ever since uncle zac and i were little, little kids, we have always woken up multiple times in the middle of christmas eve night, to go downstairs and see if santa had come. i know this seems kind of risky, but never once did we see santa. anyhow, even as i got older and realized exactly who santa is, i would still wake up in the wee hours of the morning, and when "santa" finally did come, i would just sit by my presents and bask in the magical feeling that comes on christmas day. this year was no different. santa came shortly after everyone went to bed...probably by 11:30 or so...and for the rest of the night i kept waking up and just looking down into our living room. i'm not sure if it's a childlike quality i have in me, that makes me believe in santa even when i know otherwise, or those nostalgic memories i carry with me of christmas' past, but i am 25 years old right now, and this christmas morning was just as, if not more, magical than ever. i have a feeling i have you to thank for that. :)

..santa came!!..

..your brothers were soooo excited to dig into their stockings, but i wouldn't let them until morning ;)..

up until a few years ago, uncle zac and i would always wake up around 6:00 am to open our presents, and grandma cindy and grandpa jimbob were always such good sports about waking up that early. your dad on the other hand is a bit of a scrooge about it...he likes to sleep in. maybe it's because santa liked me and uncle zac better than he liked dad?? ;) jk. anyway, you already seem to have inherited my desire for waking up at 6 o'clock, because that is exactly when you woke up! i had already told grandpa jimbob that we'd start opening presents at 8, so even though you woke up at 6, we still had to wait for a couple more hours. and besides, i thought it would be best if you got a couple more hours of sleep because we had a very long, and exciting, day ahead of us.

you were still asleep at 7:30 and i just could not contain my excitement any longer so i left you in bed with dad and went downstairs to sit by the presents. your brothers were soooo excited to dig into their stockings. duke even slept by his, if you can believe that! finally at 8:00 grandpa jimbob arrived, you had woken up so everyone came downstairs and we began opening presents.

..ready to dig in!!..

..look what santa brought YOU!!..

..mom's loot..

..dad's loot..

now, i didn't have too high of hopes when it came to your reaction christmas morning. you don't really like toys, and you are just too young to know what the heck is going on, so i figured you'd be more into the wrapping paper than the actual presents. well guess what?? you proved me wrong! you loved the first present we showed you, and didn't stop staring at it for a good couple minutes! santa brought you the rockin' elmo...complete with his drums, tamborine and microphone! you and i often walk past this whenever we are at target or toys r us, and if he is on and singing you can't take your eyes off of him, so i figured you might like him. i'm so glad santa brought you this gift, because it just started the morning off so perfectly. :)

everyone opened their presents, and like i said earlier, all three of us were majorly spoiled, by santa and by  grandma cindy. she gave you a rocking horse, and to our delight you loved that too! you kept making the cutest "ahhh" and "ooohh" sounds when you were riding it. we have to be a little careful because you're not quite old enough to ride it unsupervised, but it is so cute and i love that it's a toy you will grow into for the next few years. after opening presents we hurried and got ready for church. the morning was a little hectic, but as stated earlier, the spirit that was present during sacrament meeting made it all worth it.

..riding the rocking horse grandma cindy gave you..

..eating one of the dog's bones....you kept going for it, so eventually we just let you suck on it ;)..

after church we went down to the osborne's house for their traditional christmas morning brunch. they always serve egg casserole, randy's famous potatoes, and vickie's famous cinnamon rolls. so delicious! it's always so much fun to hear what santa brought everyone. after the osborne's we went to uncle jerry and aunt judy's traditional christams morning brunch, and even though we don't really eat it is still so good to visit with so many people. of course great-grandpa powell was beyond thrilled to see you. he still lights up when he sees you and/or talks about you, and i can tell that he is just as excited as ever that he finally has his boy great-grandson to carry on his family name. :) you were a bit on the grumpy side while we were there. i think you were just exhausted from all that was going on, and you didn't get in a very good morning, or afternoon, nap. so we headed out a little earlier than we would have liked, but it was still so good to be able to spend a little bit of time with the powell's.

when we came home we fed you then put you down for a nap. the rest of us took it easy the rest of the day, just talking and playing with/organizing our gifts. we started getting dinner ready, and sat down to eat around 7 o'clock or so. it was a delicious meal of prime rib, scalloped potatoes, rolls, corn and salad, made of course by grandma cindy. after dinner nanny goat insisted we play games, and to our utter surprise, grandpa jimbob and uncle zac actually indulged her and played with us. it was quite hilarious watching the three of them interact, and i am now certain grandpa jimbob feels that nanny goat was probably supposed to be one of his sisters, since she acts kind of like them. ;) haha just teasing.

the whole day was so perfect and wonderful. i loved experiencing christmas with you, maybe even more so that christmas as a little kid. the other day someone was telling us that when you get older and understand what happens on christmas morning, it will be almost as magical for us as it was when we were kids. as stated above, christmas morning is still magical for me, even though you don't know what's going on yet, so i can only imagine how much more incredible it gets. dad and i were talking yesterday about how the day you were born was like christmas eve/morning was for us when we were little. you are our new christmas/birthday/easter/everything present, and no gift or material thing seems to matter nearly as much anymore, just as long as we have you by our side.

merry first christmas baby finn, i hope it was a good one. :)

love,
mom