Christmas 2011

We have truly loved spending our first Christmas in our new house and loved having our family here to spend the holidays with us. The boys helped to decorate the tree this year -- the total number of ornament casualties totaled only three.

The tree in the dark (FYI: I still love my camera!)

The boys in Benjamin's Santa hat:

Ethan was so excited to put cookies out for Santa. He and Benjamin wrote notes for Santa and each pick the cookies they thought Santa would like the best.

Christmas morning. The boys waited patiently for Papaw, Ms. Sharon and Uncle Evan to get to our house (the boys woke up at the standard 5:45am and we did not open presents until 9:00am).

Before the chaos:

Benjamin and Ethan helped to sort every ones presents. (You know, to see who got more presents from Santa...)

Ms. Sharon, Papaw and Uncle Evan debating opening gifts.

We were so glad Gebee was able to spend two nights with us -- the boys loved waking up and seeing her! We also got the chance to spend time visiting with Uncle Randy, Aunt Kay, Jason and Matt. Here is Gebee with 4 of her grandsons. (Of note: the boys are wearing house coats and slippers from Uncle Randy and Aunt Kay and Spiderman Jammies from Gebee!)

We hope that your holiday season has been filled with family, fun and food as well as a few surprises!

Getting Ready for Christmas

Wow it has been a busy 2 weeks! As I get current with the blog, you all get a peek into our holiday fun! It is a long-standing tradition for us to bake and decorate Christmas cookies and then take them to our friends and neighbors. This year, the boys had so much fun decorating cookies and even more fun "delivering" the cookies.

The end result after a day of fun in the kitchen:

After a day of cookie baking, Brian and I took the boys on a carriage ride. The boys had so much fun and learned a lot about the horse taking us on the ride. The unusually cold weather made it seem like it might actually snow (note: it did not snow!)

Looking back, as we near the end of the Christmas season, it is possible that we had just as much fun preparing for Christmas as we did on Christmas!

Do you Hear What I Hear?

.....said the mom to the blog readers....

The boys had a Holiday Concert at school last night. Benjamin sang great and was so proud of himself (and we were proud of him!). Ethan got stage fright at the last minute and spent all the time before he sang sitting in my lap. Ethan sang the song with his class but would only do it if he could stand next to his buddy (the one his is facing in the video). Here are clips from each of their songs. (To be able to hear them, you will need to press stop on the holiday music on the right side of the page.)

Enjoy!

Brunch with Santa

A small miracle happened this morning. No one cried at the sight of Santa this year and the boys both agreed to sit on Santa's lap. The boys told Santa what they wanted (Benjamin - "Batman race car" and Ethan - "Race Car"). The boys even told him that they would leave milk and cookies for him and carrots for the reindeer. We were rewarded with a candy cane and an amazing brunch.

Gebee came along to witness the miracle!

After brunch, we had to check out the nature trail.

And, here is a rare picture of me and the mister. (Now that we know how to work the timer on the camera - thanks Evan!, there will be more pictures of the two of us!)

We hope your weekend was full of holiday spirit!