Christmas 2012

Christmas this year was crazy as usual, but oh so much fun! We spent the morning with the boys at our house and I vaguely remember saying this last year, but it seems that with each year older our kids get, the more the excitement level in our house rises leading up to Christmas morning. That said, it came as no surprise that two very excited boys found their way into our room at six a.m. Christmas morning. We let them each open their stockings then, but managed to hold them off from the rest of their gifts until a bit later with the promise of cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  However, once breakfast was finished, they were eager to see what else was under the tree.

Drew had lots of questions about Santa this year and whether or not he was real. I usually bounced the question back with a "Well, what do you think?", to which he would respond that he thought Santa was. Little conversations like this seemed to satisfy his curiosity, which I was thankful for. I'm not sure I'm ready to give up on the fun of Santa just yet, but I've always said that if the boys ask a question directly, I'd give an honest answer. We'll see what next year brings, but for this year, it was fun to let the magic of Santa live on a little longer.

Like every other year, the boys got new jammies on Christmas Eve.

Super excited to open them and put them on...

...but not so excited about having to sit down and take a picture in them. (This was one of the better pictures I got!)

Tanner got a new lovee from Santa. I think Collin has named him "Lolly" lion, we'll see if it sticks.

I took each of the boys out separately to pick out gifts for their brothers this year. I think it's good to emphasize gift giving and the joy that comes from that, as well as gift receiving and siblings seemed to be a logical place to start with that. Collin picked out a Hulk Lego set for Drew and Drew picked out a spy set for Collin. Both were pretty eager to share with the other what they had bought and in Drew's case this was a big secret he had to keep for the weeks leading up to Christmas. I think he honestly asked me daily whether or not he could tell Collin what he had gotten him yet. Really cute. When Christmas morning finally did roll around, I loved seeing how excited they each were to give the other their gift. The boys also both picked out small soft toys for Tanner.

Collin's spy set and Drew's Hulk Legos

Spy set in use. Yep. I married that goon.  (What she meant to say was super awesome, dedicated and willing to participate in his children's activities daddy.)

When all was said and done at our house we made our way over to Grandma and Grandpa's for some family time and Christmas dinner. Just like at Thanksgiving, I did indeed have a favorite part to Christmas:

Tanner getting to meet his Auntie Kimmie for the very first time. So sweet and like with Auntie Kelly, long awaited!

He also got to meet Uncle Dana....

Um yeeeeaaaaah. Although it may very well be possible that Uncle Dana greets every new infant he meets with a friendly lick, this was actually an imitation of something Collin had done a while ago.

The boys love Uncle Dana and all his silliness (and so do we)!

Coming in to see the tree with Grandma and Grandpa

Christmas morning was obviously exhausting for Tanner

This was one of the gifts the boys received from Grandma and Grandpa. It's an almost life sized deer with a velcro target on its side. The target's intended for a foam dart shot from a kid sized compound bow (you read that right). I didn't even know they made things like this, but leave it to a Grandpa who loves to hunt, to find it! The boys love it! So much so, that we had to reach a compromise and say that the deer could sleep in their room, but not in one of their beds. And no lie, walking into a room with a life sized deer staring you down in the dark has made me jump just about out of my skin on more than one occasion!

When the afternoon was over and we had all stuffed ourselves to the brim with a delicious Christmas dinner at Doug and Kathleen's, we headed home to pack up and leave for Oregon at oh-dark-thirty the next morning to visit my parents at their new place (more on that in a later post, I promise!).

As soon as we arrived, the boys convinced Lala and Poppi to let them open their gifts (I'm sure they really had to twist hard on Lala and Poppi's arms).

They opened...

took a break to wrestle...

...and opened some more.

Eventually, it was our turn to open and to dole out the gifts we had brought up.

This year we had Jenn and Burke. And um, a minor detail that until now I haven't been allowed to mention....Jenn and Burkie are going to have a baby!! (Ahhhhh!) Yep, they're due July 26th. We were the only ones that knew prior to Christmas, so since we had them we thought it fitting to get them something for the baby. And what better "something" than Oregon Ducks gear?? Nathan was one proud almost-uncle to christen that baby a Ducks fan. And since the Ducks' colors are green and yellow they're just neutral enough for a little Ducks lovin' boy or girl!

My momma and her b-e-a-u-tiful scarf knit by Nathan's mom (I'm telling you Nathan's mom and sister are almost disgustingly talented with a pair of knitting needles!).

My sisters and "their" babies

Auntie Kell and her baby (Tanner seems to be everyone's baby)

Kell had us for Christmas this year and made these awesome treasure chests for the big boys.

And by awesome, I do mean awesome. She filled them with all sorts of little pocket sized goodies (exactly what the boys are into right now). So perfect!

Hot Wheels now makes wall tracks. So much better than the tracks that love to take up floor space! The littles loved it....

and for that matter, the big guys loved it too. ;)

A very fun few days of Christmas for sure! Our trip to Oregon was so much more than just Christmas though, so I'll post on that sometime soon!