December, Part Three

Christmas Eve: Per our tradition, the boys opened up new jammies on Christmas Eve, set out cookies that we had made along with a mug of milk for Santa (which Santa quickly, using his Christmas Magic, turned into peppermint Hot Chocolate as soon as the boys went to bed), and posed for a photo in front of the tree.

Then they went to bed and mommy stayed up to capture the Christmas magic and to take pictures of her newest treasured ornaments as well as the boys' favorite-of-the-year ornament.

 

It didn't seem like it took very long for morning to come, but it seemed to take for.e.ver for daddy to get home from work on Christmas morning!!!  Once he was home, Christmas was finally able to begin- and the boys wasted no time passing out the gifts they had "bought" and working their way through the gifts that we had given them.  Among their favorite was boxes of Cars and Toy Story fruit snacks from Santa, and a towel-backpack that mommy made for each of them!

 

 

After our family Christmas, the boys chilled out while Dave and I got ready to go to my parents' for more Christmas!  And what held their attention so well while we got ready?  Why, their new 10-disc DVD set of Trains: A Tour Across America, of course! (pic taken with my cell phone)

The second I walked into the house and grabbed Luke as he ran by me, I noticed that he was wearing a shirt that said "Big Brother"!  I was so excited, I was so excited that once again we got a Christmas pregnancy announcement from my sister and that I was going to be an auntie again!  Since then we've found out that she is expecting another boy, and I am thrilled that we are going to have four boys running around come mid-August!

 

 

 

 

After we were done at my mom's we headed over to my Aunt Sandra's house (of course!) for Christmas with the whole family!  We had such a great time, Jack played in the doorway with his cousins and grandma until Santa got there, and I was thrilled that once again Sam proved that he was growing up by not completely flipping out when I put him in the vicinity of a stranger... I guess Santa isn't that much of a stranger to him anymore?  Perhaps it was the gift that Santa was holding in his hands that made Sam brave.  He even climbed up onto Santa's lap himself when his name was called for a second time!  Luke just couldn't stop staring at Santa and made it clear that he wanted to get off his lap as soon as humanly possible, but he didn't freak out, either.  Unfortunately their baby cousins, Carys and Timmy, didn't get the memo that Santa isn't scary, but don't worry: once the were removed from the jolly man's lap they made quick recoveries.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Sam was thrilled by his gifts from Santa: Buzz and Woody!

And that's it for December and 2011!  I will end this with two pictures of how my boys spent most of New Year's Eve:

 

December, Part Two

Starting this post off with a few random pics from December that I love:

My two ukulele kings!  

Brothers watching The Polar Express together

My gorgeous boy in a park!

December continued with our first visit with Santa for the year!  Just like last year and the year before, our city's police department sent Santa and his sleigh all around the town to greet the kids!  This year Sam wasn't afraid of Santa at all and I was so relieved!  He was really excited about the candy cane that he got, of course, as was his big brother.  I had to laugh at Jack as he plugged his ears when the police car came by... he is just like his momma!  We have many pictures of me when I was his age with my fingers in my ears as well!  Next to the police car when we went to see the Olympic torch relay for the '84 Olympics, on my dad's boat, on my dad's ATVs, watching fireworks, next to the merry-go-round at McDonald's, any time I even saw a balloon... I didn't like loud noises!  The difference, though, is that I was miserable as I plugged my ears. But Jack?  Well, Jack plugs his ears the same way he does everything else: joyfully!

 

 

Next up for December was a visit to Sleepy Hollow, also known as the Christmas Light district!  This is always one of my favorite December activities, and I was so happy that this year my sister and Luke were able to join us as well!  We started the night at my parents' house, they have a display of the nativity on their lawn at Christmas time, the same display that Grammy has and that their church has.  Jack calls it "the Bible".  One day we were in the middle of Target and Jack loudly says to me "Mom, grandma has 'the Bible' at her house, and so does the church and Grammy has 'the Bible' too- why don't we have 'the Bible'?"  I may or may not have answered his question in a manner that would have ensured that anyone who had overheard us would have known that actually weren't the heathens that my son's question would have led them to believe, and that we in fact have many many many Bibles in our house and that I actually had one on my person at that very moment (it was a Bible app on my phone, but it counts!).  Anyway, when we were at my mom's house Sam decided to check out the light that illuminates the Nativity display before we headed out to see the rest of the lights!

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sam and I were pretty excited to get to go to Jack's class to help out at their Christmas party!  I made graham cracker houses for the kids to decorate and we had a bunch of little crafts for them to make, too, as well as snowman pizzas for them to eat!  Sam, of course, was just thrilled to get a chance to play with the toys that he gets to see but doesn't get to play with when we drop Jack off or pick him up.  

Of course, this is how I found Jack spending his free play time when we got to his class at party time:

 

 

The few days leading up to Christmas, Dave was on a 72 hour shift... so on the 23rd the boys and I headed to the fire station to have dinner with daddy!

 

 

 

December's conclusion will be up next!