Christmas Day 2011

Merry Christmas!

 

I know I'm a little late posting this (okay, I'm a lot late), but I wanted to post some pictures from Christmas so I could get them printed in our yearbook.  So I'm going to be doing some catchup over the next couple days so I can order my printed blog book.  Here is some of the fun from Christmas Day...

 

Since Christmas was on Sunday, we altered our schedule a bit by getting up and opening just our stocking presents, then getting dressed and heading to church.  We opened everything else after church.

 We always have a lot of presents in the stockings.  My 19 year old daughter says the stockings are her favorite part, and insists on having the stocking gifts wrapped too.  When I was growing up, the things in the stockings were not wrapped (which sounds much easier).  I'm not sure when I first wrapped a present in her stocking, but since then I've had to wrap them.  I'm a sucker for tradition and keeping the joy in Christmas  by keeping things "the way they used to be."

 

 Can you tell that the three year old had to test out every toy as he unwrapped it?  I love that he is handling the "snake" with his gloves on!
 

 I've never had a baby this age (almost 6 months) at Christmas, so I wasn't sure how much he would be able to do.  He got this bouncer seat (which I picked up at the thrift store this summer) and several small toys all in his stocking.  We only let him see the bouncer in the morning.

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The bouncer was a big hit.  This poor little guy has had so many medical issues, and we just found out that he is allergic to eggs, dairy, and nuts, which is probably the cause of most of the problems.  Since I nurse, the food I was eating was causing problems for him.  I had only been off those things for for 3 days, but it was as if he woke up out of a fog.  He used to be complacent and lethargic, and wouldn't do much, but suddenly we have a bubbly, happy, active baby :)

 The three year old just wanted to play.  We had to coax him into unwrapping the next thing.  He could easily have made his unwrapping last a month or more.

 

 

 

 So here we are, all dressed up and ready for church.  doesn't he just look so grown up in this outfit?  Wish I had some khaki pants.  Oh well.

Packed up and ready to head out.

 When we got home, we lit the fire (hahaha - my daughter found a video of a fire burning on the internet, so we turned our tv into a fireplace).  The boys couldn't get enough of it.  Oh, and see the carseat in the chair?  The baby fell asleep after church and napped in the carseat during the whole unwrapping event.  Poor kid missed it all.  I felt bad, but I knew he needed his sleep.  He won't remember it anyway.

 The three year old got his first pair of toe socks and had to try them on right away.  He went to all the work to get them on (with a little help of course) then pulled them off right away.  I don't think he liked having stuff between his toes.

 

 

The seven year old was thrilled to get several remote control items, including this Yamaha snowmachine from Bugga and Papa.

Like I said, the three year old insisted on taking every single item out of the wrapper or box and keeping it on the floor.  We usually have everyone put their wrapping paper in a recycle box and their gifts in a separate box so we don't accidentally throw anything away.  Well, that wasn't going to happen with this guy.  He would throw a fit if we tried to clean up his toys.  So it got pretty cluttered in his area of the floor.

My daughter is seriously into zebra stripes, so I got her some zebra striped duct tape.

She immediately made a ring.

 My husband was spoiled this year.  Our 21 year old son, who was away from us for the first time ever at Christmas (he's in the Air Force, stationed too far away to be with us) sent his Dad a gift certificate to Cabela's.

And when he mentioned that he was hungry (because the kids wanted to unwrap everything right after church instead of having lunch then) our daughter brought him a plate of peanut butter bon bons she had made as part of his gift.

 Who would have thought anyone could get so excited about argyle tights?

 Now this was funny.  The three year old got Lightening McQueen slippers, and when he put them on, he scooted his feet all over the room and made car noises.  My daughter commented that they were the perfect slippers to get him to teach him to moon walk.

 The seven year old bought this little dog for the three year old.  The dog came with a tag saying his name is Cooper, but since we had a daycare kid with that name, we altered it to Copper - which is one of the dogs from The Fox and the Hound.

 He loved it and has been very attached to it ever since he got it.

Our daughter was pretty excited to get a Nook Color.

 

 This was a pretty funny gift tag my sweet husband attached to one of the gifts he gave me :)

 Here's another of the remote control vehicles.  This one follows a laser beam, which you shoot onto the floor with a controller that looks like a gun.  This little thing is zippy and can even flip over and keep going.  It came with a ramp, which I guess is a good thing... other than the fact that it has led to the car being slammed into the wall repeatedly because of incorrect aiming...

 

 Can you tell he was excited?  Guess what's in this box.  Binoculars, a range finder and a field dressing knife set. Yeah. Very cool. (Okay, so mainly cool for guys who hunt.  I figured it out about the time I heard him say, "Oh cool - it's even got a gut hook!" yeah.)  But I'm happy for him.  It is something he has had his eye on for awhile now.

 

 

 

I bought him a full set of commentaries - H.A. Ironside commentaries, which came in a set of 27 or 28 books.  He's wanted these for a long time too.  My ornery daughter decided we ought to wrap each book individually... which we did... :)

 

So what's all this excitement about?  Homemade Jerky and tootsie rolls from Papa and Bugga of course!

 My daughter bought this cutting board for me at a craft fair she was working.  It is made from scrap corian countertop, cut into the shape of a moose.  I bought one that looked like a bear for my mother-in-law's birthday.  I love that they are recycling the scrap ends of the countertop, which otherwise would have been thrown out.

 Just as we had finished unwrapping everything, Papa and Bugga came by.  The baby woke up while they were here, so we unwrapped his gifts with them.

 

I was surprised at how well he did, trying to grab everything.  Like I said, I haven't had a baby this age at Christmas, and plus, he just woke up out of a fog, remember?  He wasn't grabbing at things a week ago, and now he's really active and trying to get into everything.  It was such a big change in such a short time.

 

 

 This little truck is a cement mixer.  And the little jacket he got has a mixer on it too.  Dad drives a mixer, so we always try to buy them as gifts, but this year I could only find the one in the baby toys.

 

I was pretty excited to get some great sewing tools - including a travel iron I've been envying all over the web, and my first ever pair of Gingher scissors. 

 And aren't these birds just the sweetest things?  I also got a very pretty mother's necklace with all my children's birthstones, and several other things.  It was a good day, but not because of the presents.  I'm so thankful that my family is all safe and healthy, and that our baby is on the mend.  I'm grateful that my son returned safely from a tour in Iraq this year.  I'm thankful that my husband and I love each other and have a solid marriage.  And I'm thankful most of all that God sent us the best gift anyone could ever receive, his Son, Jesus Christ.  I hope you all had a wonderful, Merry Christmas!