A Christmas Surprise

Christmas 2017 was one I was looking forward to for quite a few reasons. All of my siblings were in town with their families, we had a lot going on, and Brigham and I had a special surprise planned for our children Christmas morning.

The kids ready to come downstairs to see what Santa brought!

Lydia and Ammon love to spend the night at my parents' house on Christmas Eve, and this year there was so little room with so many people crammed into one house, that they slept on the floor in my Grandma Busby's room. Brigham and I came over early with Kendrick and everyone filed downstairs and entered the living room to see what Santa left.

We looked through our stockings and enjoyed the "big" present left by our stocking before we ate breakfast.

After our breakfast of cinnamon rolls and scrambled eggs, the present opening began!

Last year we surprised our kids with a trip to Disneyland. This year our surprise was even more epic, and a little more life-altering. I requested the first present to be opened that Christmas morning to be the kids' surprise.

The three of them tore eagerly into the paper and pulled out another framed countdown. And they were super confused....

We finally helped them realize that it was a countdown to the due date of their new baby brother or sister!!

I don't think they were as thrilled as a trip to Disneyland, but I didn't really expect them to be. The reality of it wouldn't set it for a while with all the Christmas excitement. But the surprise was fun for me.

This was one of the hardest surprises to keep because I get so sick with my pregnancies and I'm sure my kids were wondering why they had the worst mother ever for so many months. This particular pregnancy, the sickness wasn't easing up and it would have been nice to have a reason to give them for my crankiness. I was already at twenty-two weeks Christmas morning and it was getting hard to hide my expanding middle and not talk about being pregnant around them. Such a relief to share our exciting news that morning!

Because we weren't sharing the news of our pregnancy with the kids, we also weren't sharing it with anyone else besides close family.

But now the news is out in the open: the newest Tappana member is due April 27th, 2018. We already had our ultrasound, and no, we do not know the gender. We are choosing to keep it a surprise. So now everyone can wait in anticipation until April/May-ish for the next surprise. I love surprises!

After that exciting moment, the rest of the present opening continued.

Everyone got a few surprises and we were spoiled more than I thought possible.

Probably my absolute favorite thing about Christmas this year was that it snowed!! I've mentioned that I love snow, and to have a snowstorm on Christmas was magical.

The kids put on snow gear - luckily they received new gloves and boots as presents - and we went outside to play.

My parents' dogs loved running through the powder until big balls of snow attached to their furry legs made it hard to keep going. The snow was the perfect consistency to make snowmen and snowballs, and we did a little sledding, had a few snowball fights, and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

I couldn't get Ammon in the house that evening! After Lydia and Ammon built a snowman together, Ammon stayed outside building snow things by himself until, finally, dessert was called.

The rest of us were tinkering with our new toys and electronics, including a throwback Atari and an indoor basketball arcade-thing that my kids were given to torture Brigham and I by my aunt. And believe me, storing and moving it is torture.

It was a wonderful, wonderful day. And now we have preparations to make for six stockings to hang next year! Wish us luck!

Merry Christmas, love the Tappanas!