CHRISTMAS!!!!!

We love Christmas. I love the decorations, the music, the yummy treats, and most of all the time I get with Joe and the boys! This year has been the nest Christmas yet. I loved that AJ actually understood what was going on and couldn't wait to see what Santa brought him!
We have a few fun traditions, some of which we are still trying to work out the kinks. First is our big Christmas dinner has been on Christmas Eve so we can have all our friends who stuck around over. This may be the last year that we do that, but it has been fun in the past. I made the ham and rolls and then everyone else brought 2 dishes each. It turned out to be a lovely meal.

We even had a kid tab;e everyone (except Andy) was old enough to sit at a different table, which meant the adults got some good quality time in. 

The crew

After the dinner we cleaned up, got in our jammies and made Santa cookies (no pictures because I forgot to download them and my phone busted), read the Bible Christmas Story, face-timed with my whole family while we read The Night Before Christmas, and then set out our stockings for the big guy to come. Aj wanted to be sure to give us a few  little performances before bed. Joy to the World and Santa Clause is Coming to Town (my personal favorite)

Next came more sleep than we expected. I think I woke up before the boys did because I was so excited! (Here is the picture overload warning)
Christmas Morning had arrived!
Santa always leaves everyone's stockings by the door outside their bedroom. We all ended up on our bed to explore the goods we got.

 Next we got to head downstairs, but only after dad got the fire started.

AJ got and AIRPLANE!!

Andy loved his chew toys

My boys enjoying their spoils

Tradition says the boys get a lego set in their stocking (aj will get one as soon as he turns 4)

My family ate breakfast after gifts, Joe's ate breakfast before, so we have hit a compromise. We see what Santa brought, play,  the boys make breakfast, aver breakfast we talk about the rela meaning of Christmas and try to bring the focus back to giving rather than getting and then get to open the gifts under the tree.

making pancakes

Thanks Warners

Thanks Fairbanks!

Thanks Gammie for making this super fun horse. This will provide hours of make believe fun!

After all the gifting we continued our tradition of missionary brunch. We have always had the missionaries over for brunch and allowed them to use our computers and phones to call their families. It was really fun because this year we had 4 of them over. We even got to play a few games with them. (again, all the pictures were lost). The rest of the day was filled with calling family, playing with our new toys and just relaxing as a family. It was great! I love Christmas! Now the countdown for next year begins.