CHRISTMAS!!!!!

This is Ressa, the eighteen year old daughter.  I have to know how to blog for a Technology Skills Assessment at BYU so I figured I could learn by doing a post for my mom.  She thought it was a great idea because she doesn't have to feel guilty for not updating! 

    People often ask us what Christmas is like at our house and today is your lucky day because you get to hear all about it.  Christmas weekend was crazy, but it was a blast!  Christmas Eve started off with getting ready for our new family picture.  This picture's the best we could get in the midst of a crazy day. Our family changes so often that doing occassional snapshots in our living room is much more reasonable than getting professionals done every year...or sometimes even twice a year.  After taking this picture, we ran last minute errands, ate a very yummy Christmas dinner, and opened new pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa.  We read Christmas stories and then everyone slept (or attempted to sleep) in our family room downstairs.  Christmas morning found a couple kids awake at 5 a.m. impatiently waiting for everyone to wake up so we could watch our new movie, "Mr. Popper's Penguins." Mom and Dad started the tradition of giving us a new movie every Christmas morning so they could get a couple more hours of sleep. After the movie, we gave stockings to our parents that some of us had put together and then everyone ran upstairs to see what our parents gave us.  Another reason our family can be a bit of a freak show is because we don't believe in Santa.  Our parents let the cat out of the bag when I was about ten and since then, have taught all their kids that Santa was just a fun Christmas tradition.  I like it much better this way because the idea of parents convicing children something is real just to have them find it was all a lie doesn't seem right to me.  Santa's a fun tradition, but not worth a child's faith in what his/her parents teach. It also helps bring the focus of Christmas back to the Savior and His birth.  Since Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, we had to fit watching the movie, opening presents, and skyping with our missionary brother Britton all before church at eleven where Mom sang in a trio and sounded great!  After church, we spent two hours opening family gifts.  After everything was open and the living room was a disaster, we tried out our new Kinect games (Disneyland Adventures...YAY!), played with some fancy shmancy nerf guns, and just relaxed.  Well, there you have it, an extremely simplified version of Christmas at the Walker house. If you want more details, feel free to call my mom.  

     Now that I know how to load a picture and post words, I need to embed a video.  Oh dear, here we go!  This video had my oldest brother, Tyler and I laughing hysterically.  Hopefully it makes you at least crack a smile!