Christmas Memories

My favorite Christmas Memories

1. When Nolan was more excited for us to finally get to open the present he made for us at school than he was to open his own gifts. He seriously stood there waiting with his pile of gifts waiting for us to open it. It was adorable and I love his handprint snowmen.

2. When we found Miles sitting on top of the dining room table picking all the candy off the gingerbread house. Curses for not taking a picture.

3. Going on our annual christmas light tour while listening to christmas carols. Nolan's favorites this year were Here Comes Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Jingle Bells, and Frosty the Snowman. Any song that came on that was not one of those resulted in a lot of pouting. Luckily they were played a lot.

Our book reading on Christmas Eve after our lights tour- The Night Before Christmas of course!

4. Pat and I trying to convince the boys that Snowflake Lane was the best thing that ever happened to us even though it was pretty much a nightmare from beginning to end. It's the closest I've ever been to being a cheerleader.

The boys got candy so overall they were happy.

Christmas!

On Christmas Eve we had a few of the Clingman families over. I was terrible at taking pictures but got one of Miles eating, because that is easy.

And also a little of Bettilyn leading a bit of toddler story time.

After family left it was time to get into their special christmas pjs and off for our christmas light tour. 

Back at home with the kids in bed, it was some last minute assembling, wrapping and cheer for Pat and I.

All ready!

Christmas morning the kids let us sleep in until 7:30 and Miles was the one who got up first! Shock! The boys took turns opening presents for the first time and they were so sweet watching each other open and playing with their new toy together before moving on. I should have known they weren't feeling good. :)

This was Miles' second gift he opened and he was DONE after that. We kept encouraging him to move on but he would grab this toy and run away. It was so funny! Nolan kept moving forward but would wait to see if Miles wanted his turn, we eventually got Miles caught up.

Nolan got his remote control monster truck from santa! He said he was a little sad that it didn't have red flames on it but orange stripes were close enough! Such a goof.

Miles finally moving on to his next gift.

Playing with some of his new toys during Miles nap time. A lot the toys are nap time toys (marbles, legos) since Miles still seems a bit too curious about how these toys taste. 

Swoon! My boys. 

The aftermath.

Playing with the monster truck outside. The boys love playing with it together. Nolan drives and Miles
chases it/gets chased. 

Christmas Dinner -

Miles is obsessed with Elmo so this was a big hit!

Dutch loved the Elmo box, a winner all around!

Our Annual Cousin pj picture. By this point Miles was really not feeling well and was letting everyone know. Poor guy! 

And a few outtakes. 

So close to being the keeper!

And they are all done with that!

Someday this picture will be so easy to get...

Christmas Prep

I won't lie, this Christmas season was rough. I've learned to keep an open mind when it comes to making memories with the kids. It's not always clean, matching clothes and picture perfect memories. But this year really seemed to be cursed. I couldn't have taken the tree down faster just as an attempt to get the bad juju out! There were small pockets of good times, just overall it felt hectic, rushed and exhausting. 

One of the things that was a huge success was our book advent. I'm so thankful that we can look forward to this every year. Both the boys loved opening a book every night and were so excited to see which one it would be. 

On this particular night I had the big camera out so we took real pictures which I'm so grateful to have them. 

I love the messy face, this boy hates to be clean!

Nolan discovered making funny faces into the bulbs. He loved that tree!

Over the course of the month I made 4 different batches of cookies, I estimate that there were about 200 cookies going through our kitchen. It makes sense as I used about 9 pounds of sugar. 9 POUNDS!!! I perfected a new recipe using dark chocolate chunks and dried cherries, my usual white chocolate cherry chunkies, kiss drops (below), chocolate chip cookies oh and a double batch of fudge, oh boy! I also perfected my whiskey fizz recipe.

We went to see Santa on one of Nolan's days off of school. He wrote him a letter with a very detailed drawing of the exact remote control monster truck he would like. He also gave him a few brochures about snakes and tarantulas. Not because he wants one but because he thought Santa might be interested in reading up on them. He was really nervous/excited to see Santa.

We all know how the Santa picture worked out...sigh. 

But I love this! Santa asked him all kinds of questions about the truck he wanted. It was a really sweet moment. 

That weekend was the boat parade and Nolan and I went to check it out.

He liked the actual boat parade but was disappointed that the caroling ship didn't sing any songs he knew (they only sang hymns). So we sang jingle bells all the way back to the car to show them how it's done.

Nolan discovered Legos, it's a thing now in our house. His boats/cars/rocket ships/planes are all over. I love seeing his creations and he got a bunch of new lego kits too. He's in heaven!

Our first attempt at a gingerbread house went really well! Thank you Trader Joe's kit. This was one thing we did not have to bake!

Finally we got the whole family out for some Christmas bonding. Too bad everyone in the entire state was out there on Snowflake Lane with us. Our fault for waiting until the week of Christmas. We will have to try again earlier next year as it looked like fun...from what we could see.

After all this craziness both boys ended up getting sick on Christmas day. Honestly staying home in our pjs, cuddling on the couch was the best part of the entire month. I'll have to work on keeping the craziness/laziness a little more balanced for next year.