I love Christmas and celebrating Jesus's Birthday. This year has been no exception, though it has been a little more difficult and tiring in my present super-duper-very-uncomfortable-waddling-pregnant condition! And while going to the store (ANY store) required extra time due to potty and sitting breaks, and much less patience with rude people who have forgotten what Christmas is truly about, I will say that I enjoyed sitting and directing everyone on the home decoration process - and what an amazing husband I have to man-handle these little wild things we have who wanted to help with EVERY STEP OF THE DECORATING PROCESS! I'm happy to say that not one thing got broken and our home looked quite festive this year!
We put up the tree about mid-December (yeah, that was due to my lack of energy, usually its up a lot earlier!) and the boys loved it! Of course, each ornament that came out had a story and I loved elaborating on each one. Jace soooo takes after me on that as he seemed to want to add his own little stories to each ornament as well :)
Here's the boys the night the tree went up and they enjoyed hot mugs of cocoa.
And of course, with every Christmas season comes parties, programs and visitors! The boys each had their school parties and probably ate way too many Christmas cookies, and Nonie and Dudad came to town a few days before Christmas.
We had a whole lot of giggles and even a couple robust game nights of Uno - there is a lot of competitiveness in this family!
And we spent an amazing evening of worship and encouragement at our church's Christmas Eve service. Jace performed during the service in one of the songs (and that song is STILL going through my head... "dudududududu, dududududu, it's Christmas tiiiiiiiime!")
And Samuel... well, he was dreaming about sugar plums I guess :)
But it was an amazing night and since we all got all fancy dressed up Mama/Nonie insisted on pictures, and even with a less-than-cooperative bunch of boys, they still came out pretty nice :)
The large bump!
Christmas morning was filled with loads of goodies and fun! The boys immediately discovered that Santa had indeed come and brought them some pretty cool items - a real bow/arrows for Jace and a 4-wheeler for Samuel. Then Jace shared the Christmas story (as he's done the past couple years - this is going to be a tradition I think!). I'm so impressed with how much Jace loves the Lord and how much of the Bible he has soaked up and knows - it warms my heart knowing my children are lovers and believers of our Father!
Jace telling the Christmas story :)
And presents! Samuel and Jace got some really cool e-readers from Nonie and Dudad.
The Innotab for Samuel...
...and the Nook for Jace.
And Dave and Sunami dropped off a huge gift earlier in the week, which turned out to be a foosball table! It took Brian nearly an hour to put it together... hehe.
But oh what fun it was once it was together!
And of course, the boys had to check out their outdoor toys. I wish I'd gotten a good picture of Samuel riding his 4-wheeler, but he was OFF like a shot around the neighborhood with it :) But check out the stance of this future hunter - first time picking up a bow!
And a Christmas dinner of clams, sea bass, and steak finished it off. With a birthday cake for Baby Jesus of course!
Happy Birthday Jesus!
