we had ourselves a merry little christmas (or two, or three)! due to a combination of me wanting to soak up the Christmas fun and simultaneously feeling quite tired, I don’t have many pictures to show from Christmas this year . . . (although I am hoping that our families will come up with some great ones from their cameras soon!)
We started our celebrating with Nonna and Pop Pop and Aunt Courtney, and it was very fun!
Nonna and Pop Pop really out-did themselves this year! Tee Pees!
new toys and chocolate treats!
the boys “napped” (or didn’t nap at all) in their tee-pee, so sister had to have her very own tent as well . . . and, little miss, out on the town!
On Christmas Eve, a special visitor came by our house . . . William said, “Santa really, really sounds like Uncle Bubbles, Mommy!” ha ha!
Christmas Eve was a sweet (and crazy) time of celebrating and wrangling children during the family service at our church . . . all of the kiddies went up front and sang Go Tell it on the Mountain. Despite the fact that my children have been belting out the lyrics as loudly as humanly possible, they were all frozen with fear and barely moved their mouths on Christmas Eve . . . but, it was one of my favorite memories of our Christmas this year. So very sweet . . . and, we are well into January and still loudly singing! (If I get my hands on any pics of my kids from the service, I promise to post them!)
As is with our crazy family and our traditions, we rounded out dinner at my parent’s with a rousing “Santa Box” experience (which was THRILLING for my children). My Paps used to do the “Santa box” and Uncle Crifa-dor now holds the reigns . . . it’s a box full of goodies that are distributed wildly to the lucky soul who yells the loudest in excitement for the item. Please note Uncle’s fabulous throw of some kind of amazing candy (?) in this picture . . . this about sums up the Santa Box perfectly!
Spider Man came out of the Santa box (wielding both a blow-up shield and a small red flashlight) and was a thrill for us all!
Uncle Crifa-dor spent the night with us and was so excited to see what Santa left him in his itty bitty stocking!
books!
everyone got hats, which a sweet friend of mine made (she is a special helper of Santa’s, you know) . . . and which I especially love!
and, another of my favorite gifts to give . . .
Super hero capes! (which I did NOT make, thank you etsy!)
We sang Happy Birt-day to Jesus, and Anna’s Christmas wish came true . . . she got to have her pink cupcake on Christmas morning!
and then we flew over to Sugie and Bumpa’s, capes and all, for more Christmas fun!
I hate that this picture is blurry, but it was my attempt at catching a moment . . . and I just love it!
I mean, who wouldn’t be thrilled about a toy trash truck??!?
a pink bike for the big girl!
and spiderman bikes for the big boys!
and after a day of fun with family and a long winter’s nap, sister got all dressed up for Christmas dinner. This picture is one of my favorites!
Our Christmas was so much fun and so sweet. We are continually thankful for the generosity of our parents and our families to us and our children. It was such a dear thing to celebrate Jesus’ birth together this year, because our little ones are understanding more and more of why it is that we deck the halls, put a huge tree inside of our house, string lights on the front of our home, and sing carols and hymns all month long. On Christmas night, it was really late and our kids were exhausted. Anna was crying and I was trying to hurry her into her bed and run out of the room. She stopped crying and said “mommy! no pray!” I said, okay, let’s pray, and I began “thank you, Jesus . . .” and Anna finished “ . . . thank you, Jesus, donkey. thank you, Jesus, Mary. Thank you, Jesus, sheeps. Thank you, Jesus, Joseph. Thank you, Jesus, cows. Thank you, Jesus, baby Jesus in da manger.” It was such a perfect reminder to me to not rush through the celebration of God’s love for us and His goodness in perusing us and coming near to us . . . and what a wonderful way to be reminded—by my littlest babe praying from her crib. Oh, the sweetness!
We hope your Christmas was filled with JOY! More fun to come . . .
