So This is Christmas...

Oh Snap. My last blog post was 4 months ago. Sorry ~~everyone~~ mom. Well since life seems to be slowing down recently I've found myself pinterest-ing again and then I thought to myself, hey I think I'll try this blogging thing again. Why not, let's do this. I'll re-cap the last 4 months in my next post (maybe it won't be in 4 months... but if it is, I'll then re-cap the last 8 months.. hmm.. that sounds daunting.) Anywho- lets focus this post.... on the MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR! CHRISTMAS! HOORAY! So really, I love Christmas. Anyone who even kinda sorta knows me, knows this well. After-all, whats there not to like? The week leading up to Christmas is always such a fun time of anticipation and excitement. Since having kids, we have started a few traditions that I adore and hope to carry on thru the years. And it makes my heart smile thinking that someday my children might do these same traditions with their children.*happy tear* We did lots of crafts. Like my kids did so many Christmas crafts they still probably have red and green glitter permanently stuck to them. But they loved it. Really. Here are a few of my favorites!

A tradition that I did as a kid and still carry on with these guys is gingerbread-house making. Our gingerbread houses have turned more into ummm... trees and ginger-dudes, but the kids and Jeff and I always have fun creating them. Addilyn defintely ate more sprinkles than I knew possible, but hey her "house" turned out perfect.

And our second-annual tradition of watching the Grinch and having some Grinch drinks. This is always one of my favorites!

(Grinch drinks: Green Sherbert + Sprite + Green Sprinkle-lined cups)

A few of our other traditions that weren't documented by my handy-dandy camera were: Elf & Hot Chocolate Night, Charlie Brown Christmas & decorate sugar cookies night, and a night where we read all our Christmas books! We were quite ready for Christmas to begin, can you tell?!
We celebrated Christmas with Jeff's side of the family actually on New Years Day, but to make it fit more in the spirit of this blog, lets pretend like it happened about now... Yep. That works perfectly for my blog. Ok, cool. ;) Jeff's mom prepared a delicious meal and we had so much fun just being with family and celebrating in their new house!

These cute cousins got matching pjs for Christmas and had so much fun hanging out with each other all evening!

Christmas Eve morning I made the kids a "Snowman Breakfast." I saw this idea on Pinterest and was so excited to carry out it's cuteness! I excitedly placed their plates on the table and called the kids over.. They both looked at their plates for a few seconds with jolly grins. Addilyn began devouring it and Lukas loudly exclaimed "I'm not eating Frosty the Snowman. Can I have cereal?" Oh yeah. I forgot Lukas doesn't eat "cute things." (This includes teddy grahams, dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets, or anything else shaped remotely cute). Needless to say Lukas' frosty survived breakfast, except for the few parts that "frosty didn't need" ( i.e.: his scarf, hat and the marshmallow snow balls). Oh well. Addilyn had no holding back when it came to eating Frosty and finished every last bite. YUM. Next year, I'll work on something less cute for Lukas. ;)

As part of tradition, we went to our Christmas Eve candle light service at church. Here are the kids all dressed up in Christmas-cuteness.

When we got home, the kids were super-hyper and excitedly put on their Christmas jammies. Daddy read the story of Jesus' birth from Lukas' Bible and then we read one of Lukas' books called "Santa are you for Real." I love this book. I love how it ties together the idea of Santa & Jesus and how there really was once a St. Nick who brought gifts to people because he loved Jesus! Yes, we do Santa. Don't judge. It's so fun. And if you ask my kids about him, they'll tell you he brings one special gift to them on Christmas morning to celebrate Jesus' birthday. We put together a plate of cookies and got a cup of milk for Santa and put out an orange for the reindeer. Lukas asked if he could put the plate in his room right next to his bed- so he might be able to see Santa eating them. Jeepers this kid is smart. Why didn't I ever think of that as a kid?

After about 15 minutes, Jeff went outside and loudly knocked on Lukas' window and shouted in his best Santa-voice " HO HO HO MERRY CHRISTMAS!" I waited by Lukas door to see what he would do- but heard nothing so I walked and asking if heard something. He replied, "Yes. For some reason Daddy is hammering outside BUT I THINK I HEARD SANTA! He's at the neighbor's house!" Haha, daddy is hammering. He fell asleep quickly and then it was time for mommy and daddy to get to work. Addilyn's "Santa" present this year was a play kitchen that took an entire 5 hours to put together. Cheers to Jeff for his hard work on putting this little gem together!

And eventually the job of the parents on Christmas Eve was complete. I must say, I love this night! There is just something so fun and exciting about staying up late (which is really anytime past 9:30, we must be getting old), putting out the Christmas presents while the kids are sleeping... and imagining their faces when they wake up in the morning. I remember the excitement as a kid, when my parents would tuck me in on Christmas Eve and we would all pretend like Santa was coming (yep, we talked about Santa coming and my dad left notes from Santa in the morning all the way until I got married. There was just something so fun and magical about it even tho we knew it was just pretend!!) and the joy was just so wonderful. Well that joy is totally matched, if not even better when you get to be on the giving side and see the joy of Christmas in your children. It's Awesome. Here is a small glimpse into our Christmas morning:

After we finished opening the gifts we had breakfast and mommy and daddy started packing up for our trip to my parents house. The kids were plenty occupied for the next several hours as we packed everything up, and headed down to Phoenix for a few days with my family. When we got there, my parents had all the presents out for our family and once again we got to celebrate Jesus' birthday by opening gifts! Addilyn loved her new broom set.. and that's my beautiful sister! :)

After we opened the presents, my mom and dad had a delicious meal prepared. As crazy as it was taking the 3 hour drive to their house on Christmas day, there's really no other place I would have wanted to spend Christmas dinner. My mom always made Christmas so special for us as kids, it just wouldn't seem right not to see them and celebrate with them on this special day. :) After dinner we of course had a birthday cake for Jesus and ate a ton of Christmas cookies.