Christmas Day

We had a wonderful, magical Christmas at home with just the 4 of us this year. We woke up to snow and Santa had come!

 The boys were both up bright and early as usual and very excited to see what Santa had brought them.

 James got a race track with a pull back car, just like he asked for! Mac got a parking garage, which was as close to, "cars go down ramps," as Santa could figure out.

 Jax went insane when he saw his stocking. He got a Santa penguin for the 5th year in a row, and it has proven to be just as much of a success as his last 4. He loves those things!

 Mac was very pleased with everything in his stocking and with his parking garage. Perhaps the biggest hit for him was the Rudolph Pez dispenser in his stocking, which he promptly ate the contents of in about 35 seconds.

 Mac got a stuffed Skully in his stocking, so he ran into his room and got his Jake so he could love on both of them at the same time.

 I think my favorite thing about Christmas morning is how both boys are so thrilled with absolutely everything that they receive. We took about an hour to play with their Santa presents and look through stockings and then we took a break and ate breakfast-our traditional Christmas Morning muffins with eggs and fruit. They then had about 5 presents each under the tree and it took us about 3 1/2 hours to unwrap everything. Each present that is unwrapped has to be completely taken out of the package, assembled, played with/read multiple times before they were even interested in moving on to the next present. I mean, who doesn't love a kid that is this thrilled about receiving a book?!

 James' presents from us were a Nightmare Before Christmas book and a set of figures from the movie. Mac got a Jake and the Neverland Pirates book and set of figures.

 Taking a break to read their books before we could unwrap more presents.

 The boys got a set of Magnatiles from Ama and Grampa, which of course had to be taken out of the box and played with immediately. Other popular presents were Lego Lightning McQueen for Mac and Lego Tow Mater for James from Jenny, Ian and Zephyr.

 Mac got new star underwear and socks in his stocking. He wanted to wear them over his pj's and looked like this for the remainder of the day.

We had a wonderful, lazy day at home. We just stayed in pajamas, played with new toys, cooked and ate. Dave, Katie and Thomas came down for dinner and I made homemade stuffed manicotti and mushroom lasagna with bechemel sauce. We ended our night snuggled up on the couch and watched a Christmas movie. It was a perfect Christmas-the only thing that would have made it any better was having my family with us!

Christmas Eve

We woke up Christmas Eve morning bright and early and, as with every other morning since December 1st, the first order of business was attending to the Lego Advent calendar. Santa on a snow mobile finished off this year's calendar and the boys were thrilled to have their completed Lego city Christmas scene to play with.

Every year the boys each get a hard back Christmas book from me on Christmas Eve. They got to open them before we ate breakfast.

I made a yummy breakfast of gingerbread waffles with whipped cream and rasberries.

This is how Mac showed up to the breakfast table-a party hat, snow boots and no pants.

Around lunch time, we headed up to Ft Collins and spent the rest of the day with the Nichols. Here is Papa and his boys before heading to church.

After church, Papa pulled up the Santa tracker on his laptop and the big kids kept tabs on his location the rest of the evening.

 Cousins in Christmas pj's!

 Chloe and Mac acting like the complete goons that they are. These two crack me up.

 Papa reading 'Twas the Nigh Before Christmas.

 Present time!

 Mimi with her 2 favorite things-chardonnay and her grandkids.

 Mac got his own sleeping bag from Mimi and Papa for Chirstmas-it was an instant hit.

 James was thrilled to have the biggest present under the tree-he got a sled from Mimi and Papa.

We got our 8th Christmas bell this year-one present that I always look forward to. This year ours had Mexico and Disney engraved on it-two very memorable trips from 2012! We had a great night celebrating with the all of the Nichols. On the drive home, James wouldn't let himself fall asleep because he wanted to put out cookies and milk for Santa.

It took him forever to fall asleep this year because he was SO excited about Chirstmas the next day.

Ice Skating

Sunday we met the Nelsons at 29th Street in Boulder for a little ice skating and an early dinner. It was a nice, laid back way to spend the afternoon on the Eve of Christmas Eve :)

Mac wanted to wear skates so badly, but they didn't have skates small enough for him or anything to pull him around the rink in. He settled for being carried around the rink a few times.

 Hot cocoas as a post skating treat.

Santa Party

This was the 5th year Holland and Kris hosted a Santa party for all of us. This year it was a pancake breakfast and the kids all came in their pajamas. We had a great time and the kids all looked so cute in their Christmas pj's. Before Santa showed up, I found Audrina reading to James and Riley, which I thought was about the cutest thing ever.

 James checking out Santa from afar.

 James was eager to sit on Santa's lap and Mac was eager to eat pancakes. Just as it was James' turn with Santa, Mac shoved an entire pancake in his mouth. So I ended up with this gem of a Santa picture.

Breakfast time! Holland and Kris made all the kids reindeer, elf or snowman shaped pancakes. They were adorable. I brought Mac boring old circle pancakes from home, but once they had syrup on them, he didn't mind that his weren't in a fun shape anymore.

 All the kids eating-the party has grown!

 If there are books to read, my boys will find them.

Of course, Holland and I had to get a picture of the Nichols/Nelson crew in their cute pajamas. I mean, does it get any cuter than Santa suit jammies?!

What a fun holiday tradition and one we all look forward to every year! I personally can't wait until they are in junior high and we are still forcing them into wearing matching pajamas and sitting on Santa's lap and posing for group photos.

Snowball Fight!

On Wednesday we finally got some snow! Tim had the day off and we had a great family day together baking, wrapping presents, doing holiday crafts and watching Christmas movies. We only got a dusting of snow, but that did not deter the boys from wanting to have a snowball fight. I stayed inside the warm kitchen and finished up some baking, yet still managed to be on the receiving end of most of the snowballs.

We are all excited that they are forcasting more snow for Christmas day. I always love having a white Christmas!