Christmas Day 2011 in Payson

Well, here it is, our first Perkins family post.  This post includes pictures taken on Christmas day.  The first group were taken in the morning and include;  Dad, me, Ben, Emily, Sam, Becki, and Spencer. The second group were taken after Christmas dinner of the gift exchange.

This is a picture of Becki on her dad's lap celebrating her first Christmas.  She is gazing at the Christmas tree, unseen, to the right.

Emily bought Sam the big screen TV he wanted and went to a lot of work to make sure he was surprised.  She told him he would receive a gift every day from December 1st until December 24th, and then he would receive a love letter on Christmas ....  When he opened his gift on Christmas eve and it was not a TV or anything like unto it, he was noticeably disappointed.  On Christmas morning, first thing, he received his love letter which read something like 'How do I love thee, let me count the ways, I love thee 47 inches, High Def', etc.  He was thrilled, she led him to the attic where he met it for the first time. Lets just say it was love at first site.

Here is our happy and ever wise patriarch, all ready for the general gift giving to begin.

Ben shows off our charming baby Becki to the left, while Becki demonstrates her Christmas gift below.

which was a toy saucer seat from her dad, Sam.

Emily is shown here opening gifts for the baby from relatives in Texas. Emily seems to get lots of warm clothes for Becki from Sam's relatives in Texas ... probably their only chance to buy these adorable snuggy items.

I got Ben this dragon necklace at the antique mall.  We all laughed and he was a good sport.  On the right he demonstrates the hidden knife in the tail!

Then it was off to church at 11:00, with quick dinner set up and prep afterwards.  Davin, Bri and Elias got their gift basket before dinner because we knew they would be running off to take her brother Brock's missionary phone call.  Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of them, but they really did celebrate with us.

After dinner the rest of us exchanged gifts.

It didn't seem to matter what Spencer got, he was just happy to be home celebrating Christmas with us all, and we were just as happy to have him home.

Eva gave me a smash book of her own design and full of her own art.  Here we are discovering all its wonderful, creative bits together.

More happy 'opening gift' smiles.

Here's our adorable PJ clad three year old, Zach.  Then more happy opening gift smiles below.

 With all the gifts opened, tried on, examined, discussed and shared we are left to our own devices for entertainment.

In these pictures Trevor does his own version of 'Mr. Napkin Head' from the movie 'The Holiday'.

Last of all, more baby snuggles and talking on the phone to the Idaho cousins.  All the kids got a chance and had a ball.

It was a lovely day, but as always it seemed to have trade offs.  We were delighted to have Ashley and Andy and their family, but missed Britt and her family.  We were also sad that at the last minute Uncle Kelly had to cancel bringing down the Salt Lake contingent, including Grandpa Perkins, because he didn't feel well.

Here is hoping that we will all add lots of posts during the year 2012.