A Skinky Christmas

~~CHRISTMAS MORNING~~

Christmas morning is so exhausting to get ready for... but is so neat with so many kids.

Most the kids got their exciting gift from Santa... Ashlin got a Droid Tablet, Logan got a 3 DS, Lily got a bike, Sophie got this big castle tent, Emma got pink glitter Toms & fancy jeans... and poor Dallin just got a couple clothes items he didn't necessarily care about.

After all the santa gifts were opened... Dallin was pretty good at hiding the disappointment. He had been begging for a snake all month. Then I told the kids to find all the gifts from mom and dad under the tree and pass them out. Dallin did most of the passing out of gifts and I was inwardly cracking up as he was trying to figure out why everyone else was getting LOTS more gifts... he kept finding gifts for everyone but him. After all the gifts were passed out, leaving Dallin with only 1, I nonchalantly said "Oh I think we forgot to put one of Dallin's gifts out".

Then Bruce and Ashlin left and carried down the stairs A HUGE reptile aquarium/cage thing... when Dallin saw it coming down the stairs he got so excited that he laid on his stomach, face down in the carpet, and started squealing and kicking his feet. ha ha. It was so funny.

Dallin got a "Blue Tongued Skink" for Christmas from Bruce and I.

He had seen it at a reptile expo in November.

Dallin has been begging for some kind of lizard or snake for years.

This year, even though we think its weird, we caved in.

(And these babies are not cheap.)

We were also so honored that MY grandparents came to our house for Christmas dinner. (Along with my sister Chrissy and my parents)

Dallin was holding his skink showing my grandparents... after like 30 minutes at our house my grandpa started asking Dallin all kinds of weird questions about how the skink moves, and how often it moves. Then he asked if it took batteries. Everyone laughed... he hadn't realized it was REAL.

Then they both held it.

I am sure this picture will mean a lot to Dallin some day...

His great-grandparents, him and his blue tongued skink.

PS- We will also always remember what a "Chicken-Bird" Christmas this was for Sophie. We think Santa had a great time shopping for crazy chicken items on Amazon. She is still so enamored by chickens... so for Christmas she got:

a farm set with chickens, a couple chicken stuffed animals, a chicken game, a chicken book, a baby doll wearing a chicken costume (from her Aunt Chrissy, SO cute) and this so funny rubber chicken purse:

Ha Ha

We think Santa had the most fun shopping for Sophie.