Christmas 2013

Well, this is it! The last post of catching up on 2013! I guess finishing by the end of February isn’t too bad. After this, all posts should be more current.

Last December was a busy, busy month for us. We had TONS of people over throughout the month. We keep a running list of people to invite over for dinner and it just worked out that some of the folks we’d been trying to get together with were free that month. Then, close to Christmas we celebrated with lots of family. So fun.

One of the highlights, of course, was getting our tree. We’ve gotten a real tree the last few years and we really enjoy that. For now we’re hitting the tree lots in town. When the kids are big enough to trek through the forest on their own, I’m sure we’ll start that tradition.

Christmas family photos…

The kids helped wrap gifts…actually James wrapped several all on his own!

Christmas Day was so much fun. James left a note for Santa the night before, so the first order of business was seeing if he ate the cookies and gave the carrots to his reindeer. James was SO excited. And, in his stocking Santa left what he asked for! Amazing! James’s requests were pretty simple this year. His note read: “Santa Claus, Did your reindeer get enough food to fly? Bring me some bubble gum and Anna a new doll. Love, James”.

We had fun opening gifts with the kids. Actually, we tried something new this year. We opened our stockings first thing in the morning (after giving everyone cheese sticks – got to have some protein first thing in the morning), then made a leisurely breakfast – an egg frittata, juice, and monkey bread, then opened gifts after that. We drug the whole thing out a little which worked great.

The gifts we gave James and Anna were so fun this year. James received soccer goals for the yard and Anna a new car seat. Their excitement was so fun to watch!

Later that day we had Kenny’s family over for dinner and gifts. James and Ryan started the evening off right by serenading us with some Christmas carols.