We believe in teaching our children the celebration of Christ's birth. We choose to celebrate it during Christmas and I pray our Christmas time is always focused there above and beyond any earthly traditions. However, we also believe in allowing our children to share in the joy of make believe and I know they will treasure the memories made during Christmas their entire lives. It is a time for family, for giving, and let's be honest, for getting those fun toys. This year was magical for me. It was actually the first time in my life I didn't care about getting anything...My excitement was all wrapped up in giving to my children. It was simply SO much fun!We spent most of Christmas Eve at mom and dad's house...
Papa escorted Grayson outside to get his present from them....
A Jeep Gator....as you can see, he loved it, but we're still working on his driving skills!
Back at home before bedtime, we put out reindeer food (oats filled with glitter) so the reindeer could find our yard and have a snack while Santa stopped by, and placed our milk and cookies out for Santa.
After the kids went to bed, we got to work on assembling Grayson's gifts. He asked Santa for a barn and a castle, so of course, Santa (aka Matt) went over the top and they are both basically dollhouses for boys. I had originally begun on the barn, but Lance got impatient with me and took over.
Christmas Morning began a little rough. Gray woke up crying at 4:30....forgot to mention he had gotten sick earlier in the week with a sinus infection and pink eye. Lance got the pleasure of sleeping with him that night and I'm sure he is still doubting ever having kids after that 4:30 experience. He then woke up crying at 6 to come out to see Santa....needless to say, we had to wait for him to calm down before we let him come up the hall. When he walked out, it wasn't too difficult to distract him from his crankiness....
We are finishing out our attic and one of our rooms will be Matt's home theater. We vowed not to overdo this year, so his gifts from me were some vintage movie posters and some popcorn tubs. Fun!
Lance's hair and facial expressions always crack me up!
Loving his castle and saving the good knight out of the tower he was locked in by the bad knight....
Playing with his floor pirate puzzle his Uncle Lance gave him...
Our two kiddos watching Ava's PraiseBaby DVD she got in her stocking from Santa.
Santa also brought her a new playmat that changes as she gets older...
Christmas lunch was at Aunt Vonda's this year...I think my favorite part of the whole day might have been dressing Ava in her outfit from mom and dad. Cute red tights and white fur vest...who could go wrong?
Me and my little man getting ready to open presents at Vonda's...
Grayson and Lola had a great time
Uncle Ken picked Grayson out some pistols with a holster...he wore them around the rest of the afternoon.
He also got a truck and horse trailer, and lots of other fun things...I'm actually remembering that I didn't include our Christmas party pictures...maybe another post on that then.
Just one of the guys....Charlie, Lance, Jason, Matt and Ethan.
Ava got some serious cuddling from her aunts and cousins:
Thought I uploaded the one with Lance in it, but I guess not...sorry, little brother!
Merry Christmas to all!!
Merry Christmas to all!!
1 comment:
Love it! Thanks for sharing! I often have that feeling of not wanting anything, but just things that I want to give...and I love it. So glad you had a wonderful day! It looks like fun was had by all!
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