Christmas Festivities!

I finally uploaded all my photos off of my camera and phone from December, so I am doing one giant Christmas post since I actually have time to sit down at the computer. December is always such a fun month. All of the events leading up to Christmas make the entire month so exciting, and having kids makes it all so magical. Having Benny made everything even better, we truly has the best Christmas ever!

We got out all of our decorations the first weekend in December and went and got our tree the weekend after that. We missed cutting down our tree this year, and just went to a local tree farm in Longmont.

James was convinced all of the trees had too many branches and were too full, but he and Mac finely settled on one.

Each boy gets a special ornament each year and they love unpacking all of their old ones and putting them on the tree. It is a fun way to remember what they were into each year.

This year, Mac got a Flash ornament, James got Yoda and Benny got a Baby's 1st Christmas with the book, On the Night You Were Born on it.

One of the boys favorite things to get out is all of our holiday books. They spent countless hours this month reading all of them multiple times.

Mac had his holiday show at preschool, which as usual, was completely adorable.

 We went up to Santa Brunch at Ptarmigan, which we always look forward to.

 I enjoyed dressing up Benny in all of his holiday themed outfits :)

We went to the 6th annual Santa party at the Nelson's house. The kids wore their pajamas and ate cookies and Santa came and read them a story, and brought a book for each kid.

We also had our 6th annual cookie decorating party with all of my friends from growing up. The boys always look forward to it and it is one of the only times James has to catch up with his buddy, Alec Sungy all year.

I always give the boys a hard back Christmas book each Christmas Eve morning. They love adding to their collection, and I love picking out books for them each year.

 We had brunch at my parent's house and then headed up for Christmas Eve with all of the Nichols. The boys love playing with their cousins and exchanging presents, and I love that they all still love wearing matching pj's :)

 Christmas morning, the boys ran out to see that Santa came and left them just what they asked for. James got Minecraft Legos, Mac got Bucky's Deluxe Pirate Ship (from Jake and the Neverland Pirates) and Benny got a toy bar to lay under.

 Santa ate his cookies and milk!

 After the boys had checked out their Santa gifts, they saw he had left another surprise-Lego Santa's Workshop set up by the train he left last year. To say they were excited is an understatement.

 Both boys declared it the best Christmas ever multiple times. I love seeing them so excited!

 Benny checking out his stocking.

Christmas morning was abolutely perfect. Benny snuggled up on me and took a nap after breakfast and I got to watch the boys unwrap their presents. Mac jumped up and down for each one. It was magical and my favorite part of the day.

Having my parents back in town was wonderful. My uncle and Leo, and my grandparents were all in town for Christmas. It was so much fun seeing everyone and having so much family time.

 Christmas night, while watching Home Alone 2, James wiggled out his top tooth! He could not look any cuter with his gap toothed smile.

 Jenny, Ian and Zephyr came into town the day after Christmas, so our festivities continued even longer!

 Zephyr had never seen snow before, and I was so excited when it snowed on Christmas right before they got here!

 My grandparents enjoyed being with all of their great grandchildren.

 My parents had a party at their house for all of our family friends from Arvada. It was great to see everyone and catch up.

We had a busy month and I for one am ready for school to start back up on Monday so we can get back into a normal routine with normal meals and normal bedtimes! Christmas was wonderful, but we are all ready to get back to normal!