The Magic of Christmas

Christmas is a time of excitement and anticipation.



A time for decorating.



A time to spend surrounded by family.





A time to give.



Even if it is at 5:30 in the morning.



A time to laugh and be happy.





We had a wonderful Christmas this year. I hope you did too!

The Hallmark Book

Every year the boys look forward to the Christmas eve book we receive from Aunt Mena. The tales of the Snowman family from Chillyville has become part of our Christmas eve evening traditions.


On Christmas eve night we unwrap the book and I get to read it to everyone. Then we put out the milk and cookies for Santa. And hope the boys aren't too excited to sleep. Mike and I stay up and watch A Christmas Story together and head on up to bed so that Santa can come.

I love traditions.

Christmas eve at my dad's house

I hope you like pictures!






























It was such a fun day. The boys love grandpa's house and they got suped up nerf guns to play with. We went to church in the evening and froze our butts off during the outdoor portion of it.

Santa Claus is coming to town

Mike took the boys to go see Santa this morning to get our annual photo. They were first in line to see him. When Santa came out James kept saying Down! Down! because he really wanted to be put down by dad to meet Mr. Claus. He was perfectly happy sitting there on his lap but he refused to smile. So did Marcus.


These past few days have been full of holiday baking. The boys have been taking turns helping me. Jason helped with the chocolate and peanut butter fudge. Marcus with the Christmas cut outs (which I somehow managed to mess up and had to make a whole new batch of dough, so typical), and Nathan helped make the Reese's cup cookies. Today I am baking molasses cookies on my own since the boys have a friend spending the night.

Christmas is only a couple days away and the boys are vibrating with excitement. I have to admit, I am just as excited as them. The stockings are up, the tree is all lit up, my cinnamon pine cones are out, Christmas music is on the radio. It just feels Christmas-like.

One Picture, Two People

I love this picture of Jason. It was taken before we went to his Christmas concert yesterday. He was so embarrassed because we had to walk to his school in dress attire.

When I look at it I see two people, the sweet little baby who used to keep me up all night long, and the handsome man that baby is turning into.

Big Boy, Little Wagon

Toys and Burrs

It was a nice day so he played Rescue Heroes outside.


Toys are more fun in the grass.


When he happened to heard a noise.


It was a little hummingbird who found our feeder.


The Burr made James boil over with excitement.


He screamed Burr! at it and chased it until it was gone.


He really wanted the burr to come back, but James was just too scary for the little burr.


Back to those toys.....

Hush!

Mike opened his Christmas present today.


When it comes to gift giving I can't keep a secret! As soon as he found out there was a present somewhere in the closet that was for him I just had to give it to him. At least I wrapped it.

Parades

Our family band member has been busy these past couple weeks. He has been a part of two local parades and has an upcoming Christmas concert that he has been for. I hear the clarinet version of Jingle Bells on a nightly basis. I love it.


His first parade was right around Thanksgiving. Still nice and warm outside.


Our downtown is in the ghetto. We stood in front of one of the abandoned buildings and across the street from a local trailer park and laundromat. Classy.


James checking out the hood.


He also liked to chase the nasty pigeons off the abandoned building. It passed the time until the parade started.


He marches, he plays, and he chants. He did so good. He told me after that he was kind of nervous but it didn't show.


Parade numero dos wasn't quite as warm, but we were lucky enough to get our same spot. We came prepared with blankets, gloves, hats, and hot chocolate.


Choo Choo! The train had hydraulics on it that made it lift. I told you... ghetto.


Fire truck.

James loves parades because he got to pet a mini pony. The guy that was handling the pony just walked right over to us and let the boys pet him. So neat! My dang flash didn't work so the picture I got was completely black. Actually most of my pictures from the evening didn't make the cut. I need to take a class.

The second reason James likes parades is because he is obsessed with telling everyone Hi! and Bye! normally this gets a lot of weird looks when we are in Walmart and he says bye to everyone he passes. In the parade he got tons of waves back.