California Christmas

The Tuesday before Christmas I drove all the kids down to Bakersfield California to spend the week with my parents.  Me and EIGHT kids in the car.  No other adult.  For 12 hours. I survived.  And I was proud of myself for doing that much.  It was good to be home.  My parents are planning on moving to Idaho in the near future so this was my last opportunity to show all my kids my hometown and old home.  It was such a great trip.  Here's some photos from it.

 My Dad being a sweet Grandpa with a couple of our girls.

 Christmas morning.  Very early.  So early, it wasn't "bright and early yet."  My sister Anna and her family were there too.  It made it so much fun to spend that day with them!  My kids love their Butler cousins.

 These photos were all forced upon them before they could open any gifts.

 The traditional "surprise" look when they see their presents.

This year we did something a bit different.  All of our kids (besides the babies who didn't care which end was up,) decided that they wanted to do something nice for Christmas.  A present for Jesus rather than for them.  We have a budget of about $30 per child each year for Christmas.  This year they each gave that $30 to a charity of their choice.  Most of them chose to put it into Humanitarian Aid, which we thought was neat.  But I did spend about $10 on each of them at the Dollar Store and got them stockings.  Those were fun.  Plus, they got some gifts from their Grandparents that they loved.  I have to say that this Christmas felt a lot more meaningful and we all really enjoyed it for so many reasons.