Christmas

We had a really nice Christmas here at home.  This is the first year in a long time that we haven't traveled anywhere or had anyone visit us for Christmas.  I was a little worried that we would be lonely, but we really enjoyed just being together as a family.  We really have so much to be thankful for!

On Christmas Eve I did some baking and Jackson and I decorated a gingerbread house.  Later in the afternoon we went to church and then over to a friend's house afterwards for some food and fellowship.  Here's J decorating and showing off the finished houses he made at school and at home...

Phil and I played Santa later that night and got a bunch of toys ready for little boys who don't have much patience!  :)  He put everything together and I stuffed stockings.

We were so excited for Christmas morning!  Jackson really understood the Santa thing and Jesus' birthday this year, which made everything so fun.  He got up about an hour before Emmett, so he was able to enjoy the new toys for a while by himself.  There were lots of "ooohs and aaaahhhs" when he came out and saw what Santa had left.  The remote control train and his new bike were definitely a hit!

Phil and I put the presents that were from Santa out under our big tree by the fireplace and put the wrapped ones from family under our smaller tree in the living room.  Once Emmett got up the unwrapping fun began!  They really loved each of their presents and we're so thankful to everyone who sent such wonderful gifts and helped make this Christmas so special.  I didn't get many good pictures of the unwrapping chaos, but here are a few...

After breakfast Phil took the boys out to ride their new toys.  Santa brought Emmett a balance bike (a little bike with no pedals that he moves with his feet), but he's a little unsure of it right now.  We didn't have a white Christmas, which was a bummer, but it was really good for J who was SO excited to ride that new bike!!

We thought he might hate that helmet, but he's actually pretty proud to wear it.  He puts it on right away without being told, which is great.

Our good friends who have two older boys gave us this two-seater motorized Jeep that their boys have outgrown.  It still works like a champ and the boys just love it!  I wanted to get a picture of J driving E around, but I couldn't get him off of his bike to drive it!

We saved the opening of stockings for Sunday, since the boys had so many presents to open on Christmas Day.  It's so funny how they love the little silly things in their stockings almost as much as their big presents!

We hope you had a very special Christmas, too!!  We're so thankful for our wonderful friends and family and, of course, the precious gift of Jesus.  Merry Christmas!

Pajama Pictures

I tried to take some pictures of the boys together in their Christmas pajamas the other day.  Getting both of them to sit still and smile at the camera without closing their eyes (in J's case) is not the easiest thing nowadays.  It's pretty impossible.  Here are some of the pictures that I got...

Very frustrating!  After all of that, I gave up and just settled for some individual pictures.  :)

I really need to get better at using my camera or take some photo editing classes to learn how to switch out faces in photographs or something.  Or maybe just be patient and wait until my boys are all old enough to sit still and smile nicely all at once.  :)

Christmas Home Tour

A lot of the blogs I read host home tours, where people link up their blog and share pictures of the Christmas decorations in their homes.  I thought I would share some of ours, since I love looking at other people's houses so much.  Here's our big tree in our family room...

And our smaller one in the living room... I went all crazy this year with a green and pink theme on this tree.  :)

Here's J with his kid-friendly nativity scene in his bedroom.  He and E love it.  

And I bought a little fake tree to put in J's room for him and E to enjoy.  We were going to put more ornaments on it, but the few we did have on there never stay on the tree, so I just stuck with those few this year.

I tried to make good use of all of those stick trees from Halloween...

And here's our grown-up nativity scene... I know a bunch of people have that Willow Tree set, but I just love it.

I have these old shutters hanging in my entryway that are perfect for hanging Christmas cards on.  I totally love getting Christmas cards!!

And that's pretty much it, except for some other little things here and there.  If any of my blog friends want to share their decorations, too, I would love to see them!  Merry Christmas!

Jackson's First Performance

We went to J's preschool Christmas program yesterday and it was a hoot!  I was wondering what the teachers were going to do with all those 3-year-olds... I can't imagine getting just Jackson to sing on cue, let alone a whole bunch of little kids together!  Phil and I were really interested to see how J would react to being on stage, too.  He pretty much did exactly what we thought he would do... he just stood there!  :)  Most of the other kiddos were singing and doing the hand gestures, but not our J.  He just kind of hung his arms down and looked down at the ground.  :)  Luckily, he wasn't the only one who just stood there, but he was the only one who started to cry a little!  He saw Phil taking pictures of him and after that it was all over.  We were thankful that he didn't bust out bawling and run off the stage - he just stood there with a few tears running down his face and his lower pouty lip sticking out.  It was precious!!  The kids basically just stood on stage and sang a bunch of songs (like "Mary Had a Baby Boy", "Where is Thumbkin?", "Twinkle, Twinkle", "Jingle Bells", "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", "Jesus Loves Me", "Happy Birthday to Jesus", etc.) and did some hand movements, but it was so cute!  Some of them were real performers - you could tell.  After the program I talked to another mother who was there for their practice run on Tuesday and she said that J did perfectly on that day!  He sang all of the songs and even made the motions!  I guess he was just overwhelmed by all of the people.  Here are some pictures...

Here he is after he spotted Phil in the audience...

 

Then afterwards we had cookies and chatted with some other families and everyone was happy!

We love his little preschool.  It's not fancy, but it's perfect for what he needs right now and his teacher is very sweet and loving.  He just adores her.  And we haven't been the best about going to church lately (since Emmett hates the nursery and screams bloody murder and one of us ends up being down there with him the whole time), so I like that Jackson is learning about Jesus somewhere other than at home.