Merry Christmas!

Ben and Alex woke up bright and early Christmas morning to see if Santa had come, and he had come indeed!

 

They loved going through their loot and opening gifts.  Ben was happy to get the Planes movie.

For whatever reason, Ben was dying to get overalls and he couldn't wait to open them and try them on.  Naturally, Alex asked for some, too (just a few days before Christmas) but he hasn't been quite as enthralled as Ben.

Even the birds got something new from Santa.

Alex tore into some Fun-dip and after he'd eaten the stick, he decided to dip peanut butter crackers in the rest of his blue sugar.  Hey, on Christmas, anything goes!

After breakfast, we drove to Grandma and Grandpa's for the biggest surprise - the boys met Casey, our new puppy!

Grandma and Grandpa had been so helpful to keep her for several days so we could make it a true Christmas surprise.

Ben was IN LOVE!

Alex was excited, too, but he was also ready to get on to other presents as well.

The boys were turning into pros at unwrapping gifts!

Then it was break time and back to the puppy.

This little girl will never lack love or attention at our house! 

Welcome to the family, Casey!

It was a wonderful Christmas to celebrate Christ and family and all the blessings we've been given.  It was also fun to drive home with one more warm body in the car to love.

Getting Excited

We had lots to do to get ready for Christmas this year and the boys loved every minute.  We baked and decorated cookies one afternoon and ate them all, so we got to make a second batch closer to Christmas.  That's called good planning.

 

I let the kids watch Christmas Vacation with me (although we fast forwarded a few parts..."Can't see the line, can you Russ?"...we'll wait a few more years on those scenes).  Ben thought the scene with Cousin Eddie dumping his sewage down the storm drain was so funny that he drew a picture of it later that night.  It says "sewer is full".

Bart the elf made daily appearances and kept a close eye on the boys.  Alex left a blankie out for him one night in case he got cold so of course Bart had to sleep there.

I loved this sweet gift Alex brought home from school!  It was a craft the class had made but the bag was the best part.

On the last day before winter break, the kids got to wear their pajamas.  Both guys were sporting my handiwork again in fabric they had chosen.

After school, we headed to Grammy and Grumpy's house for Christmas #1 and some good ole fashioned Christmas fun.

The kids didn't mind opening a few presents early!

Ben and Grumpy dove right into the snap circuits board, which was a really cool way to learn about electricity.

We all spent some time at the park enjoying some mild winter weather with the ducks.

The kids had fun in the trees and the grown ups had fun playing games after they'd gone to bed.  We had a great celebration, then said goodbye and headed home while they headed north to spend Christmas with Aunt Stacey and her family.  They are blessed with a baby-to-be but four hours in the car to come here was not appealing in the third trimester.

At home, the kids left out their cookies and milk.

These two crazy boys somehow went to sleep and dreamed of the excitement to come...

Thankful

Before Thanksgiving break, I got to join each of the kids for their Thankful parties at school.  I loved seeing how much this boy has grown this year!  The second graders were like little adults, so polite and well-behaved.

It was lots of fun watching Alex in his kindergarten class...it felt like a zoo after an hour in second grade.  In this picture, Alex is turned around pulling his shirt over the back of the chair while other kids were playing pin the tail on the turkey.  Makes a mom proud, I tell ya.

When it came down to an edible craft, thought, this boy was all over it.  Made his turkey then devoured it!  The second he was done, we ran out the door into the waiting car and started our long drive to Alabama.

As usual, we had to do some 4-wheeler treks through the woods to check on all the trees.

The kids love riding along and looking at everything...and asking a million questions about the 4-wheelers.

We got very close to snow the first night (and maybe got some after everyone was asleep) but once the skies cleared, all we got was very cold weather and a few heavy frosts.

The kids were really hoping for snow, but we still played in the winter wonderland of frozen grass and found plenty to do.

The rain made for some wonderful frozen puddles and the kids found every way possible to break, crush, and destroy all the ice.  They were in heaven!

We found lots of big, thick sheets and loved how it sounded like breaking glass when it crashed.  We don't find much of this in Houston.

It wasn't snow, but some of the frost was still really beautiful.

The kids found plenty to do in the warmth of the house, too.  They spent many hours creating a city with roads and stores of every kind.

Ben even got to shoot the shotgun he inherited from Mr. Scott and he did a great job.

We had a great visit and enjoyed family time and some relaxation, but as always, we still had to make the long trip back.  We were so fortunate not to run into much traffic at all going or coming, but the long drive still took someone out just an hour from home.  Or maybe he was just meditating on something important.

Back home, the kids were excited to find that their elf Bart had reappeared.

We were blessed with a brilliant sunset to wrap up our Thanksgiving weekend.  It's such a joy to pause and give thanks to God for all the blessings He has given us.  Now we can look forward to the joy of Christmas!

Getting in the Spirit

I was talked into getting the Christmas tree out yesterday because Ben wanted to investigate the faulty lights.  We never did figure out the problem, but we solved it by throwing an extra string of lights over the broken string.  Naturally, the next request was to decorate the tree, so that's how the boys and I spent a fun afternoon.

Ben carefully added all of his ornaments to the front of the tree.

Alex chose to put all of his on the same poor branch, which now hangs to the floor.

Sweet boys enjoying the lights and talking about how much they love the Christmas tree.  Turns out I'm pretty happy they talked me into it, even though I won't bring out everything else until after Thanksgiving.  Might as well enjoy this for an extra week, right?

Naturally, someone else got to enjoy the tree, too!  Blue actually seemed to enjoy the lights.  Or maybe he was terrified.  Either way, it made for a cute picture and lots of giggles.

The boys also asked to paint more ornaments and I'm always up for any craft they request.  They each got two frosted glass balls to decorate.

Ben did a great snowman and a "tree".  Alex picked a "tree" and a "snowflake".  So out of the bunch, we have some very colorful treasures to add to the tree and I imagine we'll have some laughs when we pull them out years down the road.  Luckily, they labeled them so well we'll remember they were done at 5:30 on November 20th, 2013 when Ben was 7.  Making memories here...