A Very Merry Christmas

Like every other Christmas, I was the first one awake just waiting with baited breath to hear stirring from the children.  At the very first sounds of awakening I jumped out of bed as eager as they to see what treasures awaited...

We found stockings downstairs, loaded with candy, fruit, and little gifts.

Then they all came upstairs and we opened gifts all morning.  Well, except for Bolton.  He was just grumpy.  He didn't want anything to do with anything we wanted him to do.  Everyone else really enjoyed themselves.  We all loved all our gifts, aside from the boys complaining about getting socks. :) Then we even had a few minutes to play before getting ready for church.

We went to church and had a lovely time.  A beautiful program was planned and we all enjoyed it.  We even got to participate.  Ethan played his guitar while we sang "More Than Just A Boy." After church we came home and really broke into the good stuff.  Don't mind Bryant's jammies, he puts them on right after church every Sunday.  We had lots of fun playing with the big lego set from Grandma Jane and Grandpa Woody.

I had to snap a picture of this penguin that Levi made and wrapped up for my Christmas gift.  Ethan got something too, but I don't remember what it was and didn't get a picture.

Bryant had fun putting together his new Lego Harry Potter game... we didn't get to play it until a few days later, but it was fun once we figured out what we were supposed to do.

Jonas was really sad that his brother wasn't sharing.  Bryant kept saying, "8 and up, Jonas."  Poor Jonas.

After they had played with Legos and Beyblades and Pillowpets to their hearts' content we opened up the family gifts.  We got some fun new games, board and wii.  The boys were eager to put them to use as soon as possible.

Ethan told me a few days before Christmas that he didn't want spaghetti for Christmas dinner again.  So I did my best to make a special feast for our little family.  We had ham, stuffing, twice baked sweet potatoes, and rolls.  It was super yummy and I'm glad he requested something special.

 

We had a very merry Christmas and were happy to celebrate it simply and happily together.

Christmas Eve

In the top 5 of my favorite days of the year is definitely Christmas Eve.  I miss being with our extended family, but we made the most of it in Texas.  We woke up to snow!!!  It was like magic!

That afternoon we headed out on the town to sing Christmas carols and delivers Christmas treats and books to friends.  It was a fabulous way to spend the day.

That evening the kids got bathed and then opened up their Christmas jammies.  I made them for everyone but Bolton this year.  I was so happy with how they turned out!

What a good daddy gently combing the little princess's hair.  (Love how this nightgown turned out!)

 The older boys all got matching/coordinating PJs.  I need to sew for my kids more often, they really love it when I do.  Although, Jo's head is bigger than is comfortable for his shirt to fit.  But everyone else fit perfectly!

We also had a special family gift to open...

The kids played with the new nativity while Ethan read the scriptural account and then we sang some songs.

We tried to get a good shot of all the kids together... these are some of what we came up with.  Only 4 kids, with funny faces.

 Upping the funny faces, but joined by the baby... too bad he thought sitting on top of Eliza was the best place for him.

Uh-oh, he's on the move again.  But all 5 can be seen, at least in part; Eliza's feet, Bolton on the go, Jonas with his classic Jonas face, Bryant acting crazy, and Levi's right hand.

And this was the best one.  Someday we'll have pictures where you can see everyone's face... until then we'll enjoy the spice of life that is taking pictures of the kids.

The candles made an appearance again, but no one made a meal of them.

Jonas wanted to play "Spot the Difference." I love the way they're holding hands.  They are such sweet boys.

Bryant even got in on the difference action.  He took his glasses off to make it harder. :)

Oh, I love this sweet baby.

When we stay in TX for the holiday, we always have way too much to open on Christmas morning.  Grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, great-grandparents... everyone is just so generous.  This year I made a whole bunch of fabric gift bags and wrapped them up in curling ribbon.  It was so great to not have to wrap everything, and not have to waste so much paper.

I had to take a picture of this... we bought a new TV for Christmas.  Ethan worked on getting it all set up and just when he was ready to put it up on the new TV stand and plug it in I saw that it was cracked.  Not just a tiny crack, either.  But the entire screen was badly broken.  So, we packaged it back up and put the old TV up.  Luckily, Amazon is great and we were able to get a refund with no problem.  However, we did sell the old one before the replacement came, so we were without a TV for a day or two.  It was quite tragic for the little boys who wanted to play their new wii games.  No worries, we have a lovely new flat screen in its place now.

Caroling, Caroling

On the 22nd we were invited to go caroling with a group of officers from the base.  We went to 3 nursing homes and sang to the residents.  The kids were a little shy and/or hesitant and/or difficult but we had a great time nonetheless.  

Eliza and Bolton weren't shy in the least and they made the residents smile from ear to ear.  Bryant walked around passing out cookies at the first place, Eliza handed out candy canes in the second home and Bolton followed her around begging for candy canes.  He found someone willing to give him some and he kept going back.  Everyone got a big kick out him.

When we were done we took the kids to dinner at one of our favorite local joints, Belle's.  We ate way too much, but enjoyed every tasty morsel.

Sweaters

Our family got invited to an ugly sweater party... I had this camel color sweater that was pretty awful on me and decided to make it extra fun by sewing this reindeer on it.  I also wore ornaments on my earrings (as in the same ornaments that are on the sweater).  I think I'm going to make my sweater into a pillow for a cute Christmas decoration.

I found these pictures on my camera and couldn't resist sharing them.  That had is just too much, if it was a sweater I would have won for SURE!

And he is so cute!

And Grandma Hoss sent us a pre-Christmas package with some treasures just because she loves us!  Bolton got a cute new shirt, Eliza got a couple new things including these pants and this lovely sweater that Grandma made!  Thanks grandma!  This post needed a cute sweater, for sure!

Levi's Class Party

Levi's party was the day after Jonas and Bryant's, which was great, but I had to take the wee ones, so it was a little more stressful for this momma.  The kids were lucky enough to get pizza at the start of their party, then they got to choose their present from under the tree.  They each got a book and their teacher gave them a cool new folder.

So exciting opening presents!  It was so hard to get any good pictures, that class was in constant motion.

They did a craft making a wreath out of beads, Levi wasn't interested, but Eliza loved it and did a great job.

And, of course, they got way too many treats!  He was a happy boy.

I'm so glad I made the effort to go to all the parties this year.  I could tell it was a big deal to my boys.  And that made me feel so good.  And I had fun too!  I'm so blessed with such great kids.

Bryant's Class Party

Right after Jonas' party I headed to Bryant's.  His teachers gave them each a goodie bag with these treasures.  I'm not sure why my sons have to pull these kind of faces all the time, but you get what you get (and you don't throw a fit!). 

Bryant was excited to show me his creation, Mr. Stub.  I think he said its the principle on Captain Underpants. :)  The crayon box is his bed.  Even my eight year old likes to be crafty. ;)

Someone brought those ginormous marshmallows and they were a huge hit!  Even the moms were talking about how great they were.  You can kind of see his wrapped mailbox on his desk here, the kids all made each other Christmas cards instead of doing a gift exchange.  I was really impressed with a couple kids abilities.  And to be honest, I felt a little better about Jonas' penmanship and spelling after seeing some these 3rd graders' work (we're working on his).

Jonas Class Party

Jonas' class party was on the Grinch Day, so everyone was supposed to wear green or a grinch shirt.  They made these super cute photo frames.

They played hot potato with their puzzle gifts.  Divided into boys and girls, they were so fun to watch...  those puzzles sure got going fast.

The first opening of the season.  And a classic Jonas face.

Another classic face, he was lucky, this was by far the coolest puzzle of the party.