Meservy Family: Christmas 2012- the Year Santa was Discovered...

I have had my Christmas pictures added to blogger for quite some time. I think I've missed the time that's appropriate to post them but oh well. I't'll be mainly pictures but there is one story worth telling...

Below at Aunt Terri's annual Christmas party:

We made our way to Idaho this Christmas. This trip was our best yet. Stopped only four times for potty breaks and they were all when we gassed up. Made it there and back in record time (under 22 hours):

Jared Going with Grandpa Meservy to the courthouse to deliver some goodies:

Celebrating Grandma Cherie's birthday:

Opening Christmas Eve presents, Chris gave Jared my pajamas which had him puzzled:

This was the year Jared found out about Santa Clause. For the past month he'd been asking for an I-pod touch. I told him Santa didn't give him anything. Mom and Dad had to approve of it too. Our philosophy with Santa has been to put the question back on them. "What do you think?" Well Christmas Eve Jared was determined and relentless in asking. We'd put the boys to bed and 20 mins later Jared came out asking if Santa was real. It took us well over an hour before we finally told him. We pretty much spelled it out for him saying he was a symbol and that other people acted as Santa in the spirit of giving. Nothing we said satisfied him, he wanted a direct answer.

So eventually Chris said, "Jared, we don't want to tell you because it takes away the magic of Christmas. It will never be the same anymore. Are you sure you want to know?" He replied yes to which we simply said Santa was not real. He broke down in tears. But don't be feeling too sorry yet. He started crying and through tears said, "Now there's no chance I'll get an ipod touch. I know you guys won't give me one but if there was a Santa there may have been a chance." And then he got mad and wanted to ruin it for his brothers. It was hard not to get mad at him. Chris responded with, "Jared, Santa is a game that we all play. If you don't want to play the game and pretend that he is real then you don't have to play the game. You can still get gifts from mom, dad and family, but you won't get any from Santa if you don't play the game. Mom and Dad still play the game and it's a fun game. But if you don't play it right then you ruin it for everyone and you can't play." We were a little nervous the next morning but he woke up happy and not a peep to his brothers about his discovery. I was so grateful Christmas wasn't ruined.

Christmas morning (Santa gifts: J-Skylander Giants, S-Monster legos, M-Ninjago vehicle):

Jordan awarding himself a trophy for

Playing Skylanders:

My family was sick so we didn't get to go see them:( But my brother and his girls weren't so we did a quick visit to see them.

Jared and Clairee:

We got our family just dance 3 which was fun for all to watch:

We had watched the weather before coming and there was no snow in the forecast so we didn't bother packing snow clothes and boots. We made do with what we had. Grandma Cherie had some snow clothes we dug through and for boots we used grocery bags. Wala!

Calvin, Ashley's (Chris' sister) little boy

There was an awesome snow fight that escalated quickly that Chris captured on video while he was inside the house. If I ever find time/motivation to figure out how to upload it I'll have to.

Getting ready for the annual Chinese Dinner:

We didn't escape the sickness. Miles came down with a bug and was ill for a few days:(

But it didn't keep him down all day:)

Finally it seemed that my side of the family was feeling better so we went over to my mom's to meet up with everyone.

Katie and Ashley:

David and Tyler playing a wall ball type of game with all the little boys watching on the sidelines:

Trent and his beautiful wife Kayla:

David and Tyler:

Doing just dance with Nicole, Heidi, and Rachel:

On our way home it was smooth sailing except for the fact the day before Chris had started to not feel too well. But we never had to pull over for anything and he even helped drive and felt fine, such a blessing.

When we got home the kids opened up Christmas from us: