Christmas

Christmas is so much fun when you have kids.  It definitely is all about the children.  We did lots of things this December to celebrate the Christmas season.  

We went to a Gingerbread Cookie Play date.  Of course, Joey was more interested in eating the candy instead of decorating the cookie! 

We attended the Mommy and Me Christmas party.  This was wonderful!  Toyota sponsored it, so we all got very spoiled.  Full catered meal and very nice presents for the kiddos.  It was so nice and we were very grateful for Toyota's generosity!

Joey saw Santa a few times this season.  The first time was at the Mommy and Me party.  He wouldn't let go of me!  

We decorated our house for the season.  I saw this felt tree idea on Pinterest.  We cut this tree out of felt, as well as some felt ornaments, and let Joey go to town.  His own personal tree to decorate!  It was great for the two days he was interested in it!  After that, he could care less about this tree.  Oh well.  We tried.  

We picked out our Christmas tree at the Trees for Troops tree giveaway.  This is an amazing program that gives away trees to military families!  We are so thankful for this program, too!  

Joey really liked decorating the real tree this year.  He only broke one ornament this entire Christmas season!  

 Joey's second visit with Santa went so much better than the first!  We told Joey that he only had to walk by Santa and say "Hi".  Joey did that and jumped into Santa's lap!  He also pointed out what toy he wanted.  Lol

Bristol was in a pretty crappy mood for this entire Christmas party, but she did cheer up right before Santa rode off.  We were able to get a pretty cute photo of little miss!

As for Christmas Eve and Christmas day, we are trying to start or continue a few traditions we started in Alaska.  Christmas Eve day we got up, had pumpkin pancakes, tried to drop off toys at the Children's Hospital, let the kids nap, went to Christmas Eve service, came home ate a nice dinner of appetizers, and put the kids to bed!  Then, the parent elves got to work turning the living room into a present extravaganza!

On Christmas day, we got up when the kids did and opened presents!  Joey was in heaven!  He loves presents and opening packages!  It took us a few hours to open gifts because Joey wanted to play with every present as he opened it.  This isn't a bad thing at all, except when Mommy and Daddy want to open their presents too!  Ha!  

I had made a breakfast casserole in the crock pot the night before, so breakfast was ready to go when we woke up.  This was very nice! 

After we opened our presents and stockings, we started on Christmas dinner.  Our good friends, who also came over for Thanksgiving, joined us for Christmas dinner, too.   We had lots of yummy food and we actually set the table for the adults this time, just in case the kids wanted to play instead.  

 

The kids got us the best Christmas present ever...they both napped at the same time on Christmas day!  It was amazing!  We were able to get dinner all ready, the house cleaned up, and had time to chill out before our dinner guests arrived!  

It was a truly incredible Christmas and I am so grateful that we were able to spend it together as a family.  We are very blessed.  

 Merry Belated Christmas from us!