Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a big day!  My mom, Aunt Debbie & cousin Kelsie all headed to the Buell Theater for a matinee performance of "White Christmas", one of our favorite Christmas movies.  It was fun to get dressed up and go downtown.  The show was a little slower than the movie, but still fun and very festive.  

 Sisters in front of a poster of their favorite number...

 After the show, Sean and the boys met us at church for the Christmas Eve candle light service.  It was a "family friendly" service, complete with live nativity, bell choir, children's activity books and glow sticks instead of candles for the little ones.  Genius.

 On our way home, we drove by the Capital to take in the amazing light display.  The boys loved it!

 When we got home, it was time to get ready for bed & leave our cookies & milk out for Santa.  Mimi bought the boys these cute matching PJ's.  They couldn't wait for the big guy to get here!

Christmas Cookies

This week, we dusted off our aprons and baked cookies for Christmas!  We may or may not have cheated and bought the mix from my dear friend, Betty Crocker.  Either way, the boys loved helping me mix, roll and cut the dough.  I have two little helper elves in the making!

 Baking fun! (AKA: a two-headed preschooler)

 Putting on the finishing touches.  Even Daddy got in on the fun!

 And the next morning, we discovered that Alfie had gotten into our cookie stash.  As Carter said, "Elves LOVE sugar!" 

Santa Sighting #2

The boys have gotten a lot of mileage from their coordinating Christmas sweaters.  Let me tell you, finding cute holiday clothes for boys is not easy and not nearly as adorable as all of the girl stuff.  Trust me. Anyway, we did about 20 takes for our Christmas cards before coming out with one that would work.  Here are two of my favorite "misses".  

 And last night, we put on the sweaters again to go see Santa at Daddy's office!  He visits there every year and it is such a sweet event.  Each child gets a book and stuffed animal, plus however many cookies they can eat (in Davis's case, that's a lot).  They boys sat on Santa's lap and Carter even drew a picture for Santa.  The Big Guy will be here before we know it!

Diaper Free!

Davis surprised us all by getting himself potty-trained over the course of three days.  I used some serious bribery (a remote-controlled Thomas train) and he climbed up on the potty, went #1 & #2 and that was that...off to Toys-R-Us we went to get the train!  He has had a couple of accidents here & there, but nothing out of the ordinary.  He has been insisting on wearing undies for nap, but will let us put a Pull-Up on him overnight.  He's able to stay dry during nap and has recently been staying dry overnight, too!  We are thrilled.  I love not having to change dirty diapers and he is so proud of himself for wearing "big boy undies".  Way to go, Davis!!

Aunt Christy Comes to Town!

We love that Aunt Christy comes to Denver on business several times a year now.  We get to see her so much more and it is always a lot of fun no matter what we do.  This week we played around at home some, ate at Olive Garden and took in a Christmas Festival!  Good times.

The boys love that Aunt Christy enjoys horsing around just like they do!  We love you, Aunt Christy!  Just imagine all the fun we could have if you moved to Colorado...(hint, hint)

We walked around Olde Town to see the tree lights and got some free fireman hats along the way!

Sister & Sister enjoying the festival...

Aunt Christy keeping the boys entertained at the library while Sean & I waited in the Santa line.  Aunts rock!

Finally it was our turn to meet the big guy!  The boys colored Santa pictures and were so proud to be able to give him something!  Carter asked for a "remote control jet" and Davis wanted a "remote control rocket"...not sure Santa makes those at the North Pole.  We missed out on the free carriage rides, but other than that it was a fun, festive night.  Ho, Ho, Ho!

Click  here to see our "official" Santa picture.

Christmas Cheer

We are in full Christmas mode over here!  Sean took it to the next level with our outdoor lights this year by doing almost our entire fence in white lights--it looks so nice!  We also added a tiny inflatable Santa in the front yard.  Tacky or super festive?  You decide.  

 The boys decorated gingerbread houses and had even more fun eating them.  Not bad for a $10 kit from Target!  

 Who invited the frat boys?  Seriously, this is how they both decided would be the best way to eat a gingerbread house.  Gotta love it.  

 Alfie, our elf, has been busy keeping track of the boys' behavior by day and getting into trouble at night.  One morning we woke up to find him playing in the dining room with Buzz & Woody--he even stole Woody's hat!  Another night he was caught with a Candy Cane Oreo in hand and a bunch of cookie crumbs on the counter.  Alfie has been so entertaining this year!

We've also gotten surprised by care packages from Grandma Pat and Mimi!  They each sent some wonderful Christmas goodies for us to enjoy this season.  Thank you!!!  The boys have loved the books, ornament and penguin toys!

The Rest of the Visit...

I somehow skipped over some great pics of the fun we had while my Dad & Nancy were here.  It was a great visit and we are already making Thanksgiving 2013 plans!

Grandad and Carter coloring together.

There was a block party on our street the night our company arrived, so the boys went outside for a bit & Davis came back in sporting some random baseball gear that he found at the neighbor's house.  Grandad thought he looked ready to play ball!

Showing Grandad the LOVE!

Playing Legos with the Birthday Boy.

Time to open gifts!

Our last night of the visit, Dad & Nancy took us out to eat at Joe's Crab Shack.  Dee-Lish!  (I left work early to meet them there, hence the "comfy driving-to-work clothes that are never meant to be seen in public.)  I can't believe I didn't get a pic of Nancy & me on Thanksgiving day because she was instrumental in pulling off our meal for 15 people.  Instead, we got a photo of her in the crab bib and me in my sweats. 

We so enjoyed having our house full of family & friends over the holiday weekend.  It was a joy to have Dezo, from Haiti, join us too!  She is in the US going to nursing school & is being hosted by Dad & Nancy's church.  She has been living with them for the past year and is just a really wonderful person.  The boys loved Dezo and we are all hoping she will be able to visit us again.  It was very eye-opening to hear about the differences in our cultures.  We certainly have lots to be thankful for!  

Deck the Halls

 We are finally getting all of our Christmas decorations up and the house is starting to feel festive.  Even though this is my favorite time of year, it is a lot of work to put up decorations and part of me is always melancholy about it because I know in a month I will have to take them down and that is my least favorite time of year.  It helped that the boys were so excited about decorating the trees and their "help" made it even more joyful.  I always love seeing the ornaments I have collected over the past three decades and the flood of memories that are attached to each & every one.

 Davis enjoyed putting the ornaments on AND taking them off the tree.  Carter was happy to just take it all in.

Looks who's back for the Christmas season!  Alphie the Elf came to our house after Thanksgiving and has resumed his role of observer during the day, reporting back to Santa at night to let him know if the boys have been "naughty or nice".  Our Elf on the Shelf  is a great reminder for the boys to stay on their best behavior!

  The "rainbow tree" as the boys call it (because of the colorful lights), is in the entryway this year.  It is my favorite tree because it displays my collection of Hallmark "light and motion" ornaments that my Grandma Shirley gave us each year.  Thanks to my mom, who found the adapters from Hallmark, I am able to use these 20-year-old wonders on 21st Century light strings.  The boys, of course, are in awe of them. I love it!

 This is the last big ornament I remember my grandma giving me.  It plays one of the songs from The Nutcracker.  And, because it will make me cry if I think about it too much, I'm copying my status from Facebook today which pretty much sums it up: "I'm thankful for the 30 years I had with grandparents who made every Christmas special. It is not the same without them here, but as I decorate our tree I am flooded with countless memories of the magical Christmases from my childhood. What wonderful times we had...knowing them was one of the greatest joys of my life."

 

 Something new this year is that each of the boys got a small tree in their room (Thanks to Kohl's 75% off sale from last year!).  Davis has a cowboy-themed tree (plus Mater) and Carter's has penguins (his favorite zoo animal).  They serve as nightlights at bedtime and bring a little Christmas spirit upstairs which makes me smile.  

 Also, the Christmas Train came out last night and the boys were so excited!  They had forgotten all about this gift from Mimi & Grampy last year because we put it away when we took the decorations down.  So, it was like a new gift!  Thank goodness Daddy is a train track expert and was able to configure it to fit just right on the train table in the playroom.  It has been a huge hit all over again!