christmas 2015 part 3

Our last bit of Christmas took place the weekend following Christmas.  We squeezed in two Christmas parties on the 26th in Kansas.  We got to see a ton of family at each, but if felt like only to say hello.  We left for Lebanon in the late afternoon.  That was the day it rained and rained and rained.  We didn't make it there until almost bedtime.  We were sure glad to get off the road.

We had a relaxing evening of catching up with the family.  My kiddos always seem to know we are somewhere new and want to get up so much earlier than normal.  We "try" to play quietly and eat bananas.

After church, we came home and pretended it was Christmas all over again.  The boys had just been playing around the tree and didn't ask once who all the presents were for.  They soon found out!

He's already got the rocker look down, doesn't he?

Amos got lots of new puzzles!  YAY!  Some hard ones too!  Nana and him had fun putting them together.

After making it up from his nap, Ivan got to show us his skills at unwrapping.  It just keeps improving.

We then headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Musgrave's house for more fun and presents.

Monday morning brought coffee and cinnamon rolls! Yum!  And we had a nice laid back day.  I think at one point everyone in the house was sleeping.  Or just about everybody. We loaded up after steaks for dinner and made it home just as our Audio book was finishing.  With all the rain, we were a little afraid that our basement might be underwater.  It was definitely a pleasant surprise to find no more water than after a normal rain.

Merry Christmas!

christmas 2015 - part 2

After overcoming the stomach bug, we were able to fully enjoy Christmas Eve and Christmas day together as a family.  For the last couple of years, we've made sure to be at our home on Christmas in an effort to establish our own family traditions.

We started Christmas Eve day by wrapping up all our presents.  I'm not sure if we'll do that every year, but with a 1 year old on the loose, it made sense not to put anything under the tree until the last possible moment.  Even then, he still caused some present destruction.

We headed out early that evening to eat dinner out before going to our Christmas Eve service at church.  We enjoyed a family favorite at Maria's, but lingered a little too long and showed up about 10 minutes late to church.  Too bad for us, the service only lasted about 15 more minutes.

After putting Ivan down for bed, we let the older two boys stay up to drink hot chocolate and hear the BIG story of the Bible.  Jason illustrated in simple terms the big concepts of God and the world and why we needed a Savior.  Then we talked about how crazy it was that God the Son became a little baby.  Amos' wheels were turning in his head.  It was a pretty special evening and I look forward to each year when all our sons come to a deeper understanding of the BIG story.

The next morning, we started with the stockings.  I think the immediate favorite was the Christmas cereal.  Ivan especially like the Christmas cereal.  He couldn't get enough of it.

 Jason and I found our own surprises in our stockings.

We re-enacted the Christmas story with our nativity pieces while Daddy read it from the Bible.

 The boys soon discovered that Jesus was missed from the scene.  Silas kept looking for him under things until Amos came over and saw a slip of green paper where Jesus should be.

 It was a clue.  I made the clues simply enough for him to sound out several of the words and the hunt for Jesus was on.

They scrambled around the house until they found the GREATEST GIFT and unwrapped it.  God's gift to us motivates and shows us how to give to others.  May the truth penetrate our heart.

We took a pause to make breakfast and coffee.  While Jason and I worked on that, the boys snacked on their cereal and played with the gifts they found in their stockings.

With breakfast eaten and coffee in hand, we were ready to open our gifts.  I kinda cheated and opened mine early.  It was a Hydroflask, which I used that morning.  All coffee drinking Moms need something like this, because how else are we suppose to finish all our coffee before it gets cold.  With this thing, it stays hot to the last drop.

We got Amos and Silas each three gifts, representing the three gifts the wisemen brought Jesus.  Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.  Early that week I had tried to explain to Amos the theory behind it, Gold being something he really wanted, Frankincense was something he could use to know Jesus better, and Myrrh was something to do with his body.  After my whole spiel he had a pained look on his face and said, "I don't want any Frankincense!" Ha!

We took time after opening each gift to really look at and enjoy it for a little bit.  The boys opened their Frankincense gift first. Silas got the book God Made All of Me.

 And Amos received The Biggest Story.  Both are pretty neat.  I think Jason made have been even more excited about them than Amos.

Amos looked at every page in the book.  We've been using it as our bedtime reading since Christmas.

Next up was their gold gifts.  They've been wanting a transformer for quite some time! After opening it, Amos told me that I got him a pretty good Transformer.  He has since transformed it approximately 3000 times.  Silas got one too, but needs alittle more help with his.  He loves it because it's just like Amos.

Their myrrh or body gifts were- Amos a bow and arrow set and Silas a new over the door basketball goal.

 They were both pretty excited until Amos realized he wouldn't be perfect at it right away.  He's now a pro and loves it.

 Silas picked out this cool lighter for Dad and the boys exchanged gifts too!

The rest of the day was spent lounging and enjoying our new gifts and each other.  Christmas with kids is the best!

christmas 2015 - part 1

Christmas has now come and gone, and we are about to celebrate the new year, but that doesn't mean I can't look back on all the fun we had.

We started celebrating early this year.  With my family, it worked out better to celebrate the Monday before Christmas.  After church on Sunday, we loaded up and headed back to my home.  We were greeted with a full house and good food.  Everyone was able to be home for Christmas.  Even Uncle Joe!

The kids played so well together.  Now that we don't get to see them all the time, the kids like to make up for lost time and don't waste much time fighting.  The adults played too.  We filled the afternoon with lots of games and snacks.  Our family favorite "Fishbowl" game even made an appearance.

Everybody was up bright an early the next morning.  Even those who didn't want to be! Ha!  Uncle Joe commented how hanging out with family always stressed the importance of abstinence!  I'm glad we could help.

Christmas pajamas!  I love it! They're close enough to the same size that I was able to order a two pack for Target for these guys.

This guy joined the party a little bit later after a nap.  He's pretty cool stuff in his new hat and glasses.

And we had some little Divas running around too.

 Thank you Grammy for the kazoos!  What beautiful music they make with them.

 I'm sure you can imagine what this picture sounded like.

After stockings, we slowly made our way through opening all the presents.  We like to take turns and see what everyone gets.  This year, girls bought for girls and boys for boys.  The catch was that we put a $5 limit on the gift.  Everyone got pretty creative.

A real bad guy!  He definitely thought Darth Vadar was pretty cool.

 And a Hulk Costume has been on his wish list for quite some time!  Hulk SMASH!

The rest of the day was filled with lots of playing and eating.  Grammy surprised us girls with massages already scheduled for that day.  So after putting everyone down for a nap, we headed to Parsons for a massage!  It was wonderful!  I think I need to do that a little more regularly!

We headed home that evening and discovered the next morning that we were passing around a stomach bug that weekend.  Some of us had a rough 24 hours, but it was a short-lived sickness and didn't interfere with much of the Christmas break!

What a blessing it is to have family with which to celebrate and enjoy Christmas!