Christmas Day

 Okay, so I'm a bit late on blogging.  I got a new computer and haven't figured it all out yet.  In fact it's been downright frustrating.  But that's another story altogether. Christmas here was delightful.  We had our oldest son home, and my Dad was with us. We have no chimney here, so the stockings were hung... on the daycare play structure.  It worked well for what we needed, but I would love to have a big rock fireplace with a log mantle ... in my dream log home... :)

 Before the carnage...

A couple of sleepy boys, whom I had to wake up :)

Stockings were first...

They were full of all kinds of goodies and sweet treats. (Though I have to say, if I had it to do over, the stockings would be a lot smaller ;)

 Brothers...  The 22 year old got the younger guys matching Air Force shirts.  They say "I'm bananas for the Air Force ... No Monkey Business. 

 There was not a lot of cooperation when it came time for a photo.

Our 20 year old daughter wasn't able to be with us this year, so we Skyped with her. 

The baby just layed down on the floor and watched her.
 

 Christmas is always exciting. This package was a K'nex roller coaster kit.  This is being done as a Father-Son project, and I expect it will take months to complete.  They work on it on Sunday afternoons.

 The four year old is all about monkeys.  The one he's snuggling here has velcro on it's hands so it can hang around his neck.

Which it did for most of the day...

 Legos.  His first set.  I'm finding them everywhere :(

 The four year old had to show his sister the monkey he got.

She showed him a sock monkey ;)

The four year old got a really cool semi stock truck which came with a bunch of cattle.  Perfect for him.

I got a "new" crock pot from my husband.  Don't scoff.  I told him to get me a used one.  We have a great thrift shop, and I doubt he paid more than $2 for this beauty.  It works perfectly, and I love the old style and colors.  He got me a really small one too, but I didn't take a picture of it.  Anyway, once it was out, the baby just wanted to play with the cord.  We had a hard time getting him to open any presents for a long time.

Poor Grandpa wasn't feeling well, and it was all our fault.  Unfortunately we passed him a stomach bug just in time for Christmas Day. Thank you daycare :s

 The baby did figure out how to open presents, and he was pretty good at it too.

 Grandpa got the one year old a pillow pet - bright orange :)  When he unwrapped it, I said, "Oh, it's a pillow!" and he immediately headed for the bedroom to put it in his bed. He loves it, and sleeps with it every night :)

This just cracks me up.  My mother in law bought this for my husband.  How fun is that?

The old adage about the baby being more interested in the box held true.  I looked over at one point the the baby had crawled into this box all on his own.

Pretty fun!

We got him a phone because he loves to push buttons and he loves to listen to music and noises.

What a disaster of a mess!  And I was trying to be somewhat organized, too.  I had trash bags, and a box for each person's stuff, and it still looks like a tornado went through here.

The 22 year old figured out a way to win over the one year old....  jelly beans.

My husband's sister bought the boys hats and gloves.  They had to put them on right away.  :)

Surprisingly, the baby leaves them on when we go out too.

The four year old thought he needed his snowboots on too.

It was a really fun day.  We played games, had a prime rib dinner, and just a lot of fun visiting.  The next morning, we got up early, took down the tree and headed for Colorado to spend some time with my Mom and sister and her family.  That was such a nice break.  I'll post some pictures from that next time.