Christmas 2010

Back at home on Christmas night, after returning from our trip to Atwater, we celebrated with just us... picked up a pizza and opened gifts from each other.

Joel and Grant got lots of cars from the movie "Cars" for their new Piston Cup Track, which was our gift to both of them. They LOVE it. Cars, cars, and more cars seemed to be the theme this year.
And there's the track and some of their many cars.They also have really enjoyed the Elefun game...
I was behind the camera ALOT this Christmas, mainly attempting to figure out my new camera by taking probably over 1000 pictures, but here is a picture to document I was actually around...

Back to the previous day... Christmas Eve morning (after Jeff and Mitchell had shoveled the 6 inches of snow that fell during the night), we departed for Atwater to spend 24 hours with Gpa and Gma Benson, Uncle Jon, Aunt Terri, Lincoln and Jayna. It was a very, merry 24 hours (quite honestly, it was)

The boys immediately dove into to having a blast wrestling with Lincoln (no surprise). We let them have their fun for awhile... of course eventually Joel and Grant got a little over-zealous with the wrestling and we had to bring that to an end.

We even managed to take a few pictures before heading off to church (gee, make sure you don't crack a smile now Bensons on the right)

And, putting an end to the wrestling led to stair-jumping... (I think Jayna is actually falling in this picture), but no tears were shed during stair jumping, surprisingly

but... when Grant started jumping from the 4th step, that also had to be put to rest...

Playing around with Uncle Jon

Terri, posing for me, helping me learn to custom set my white balance, which I have found to be VERY helpful. Thanks for all th tips this weekend Terri!

In true 2010 Christmas fashion, we were tracking Santa with the "Santa App" on Terri's ipod. We could check his exact global position all day and keep an eye on the constantly updating naughty and nice lists. If you look closely below, you can see Joels name on the "nice" list. We even sent Santa some text messages and the Santa App told the kids they BETTER get to bed because Santa would be in their area soon. (this actually worked quite well for getting them all to bed!)

Jon and Terri got Roger a "Race Horse" game that we all really enjoyed playing. A simple card game with a simple wooden race horse board = a big hit.
Kids playing in a big box (not sure why we bother with the presents...)
Mitch's new "very sweet" bat from Uncle Jon. He apparently got it on Ebay from some kid that had no idea how to price it, which led to a lucky day for Mitchell. I can't wait to see that think crank out some homeruns this spring!

"Brett Favre" Vikings hat from Gpa and Gma. Apparently this hat is similar to the one Brett wears. Joel, not looking so happy about being put in a bear-hug hold my Gpa Benson (as a means of getting him to stop wrestling if I remember correctly)
Time for bed... Santa got cookies, beef jerky, and Pepsi:)
Christmas morning, and Santa did not disappoint... the famous "Criss Cross Crash" was delivered for Grant

And a Bat Cave for Joel

"Criss Cross Crash" was a hit with everyone, just watch the video below for some live reaction. In case you need some interpretation during the video, Grant first yells "This is speeeedy", then later yells, "Whoa", and "This is cooolll" Nothing but pure joy watching the speedy cars race around.

The hersheys kisses in the boys socks may have been one of their favorite parts of Christmas morning, only on Christmas does a kid get to eat chocolate for breakfast!

Santa also brought a transformer for Joel and Grant... although somehow by the end of the day, Joel seemed to have Grant talked into giving him the transformer he got, since Joel apparently didn't like the one he got, as it was shaped like a truck instead of a car... like I said... cars were the theme of the weekend

Jayna, looking pretty Christmas morning in her new dress:)