Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning.

It truly is magical to watch Christmas unfold in the eyes of your own children.  We had such a special Christmas this year with the kids & enjoyed being at home with one another (and very lucky to have MeMe Ruff with us as well!).  Believe it or not, the kids did not wake up SUPER early so we managed to get a Christmas gift to ourselves and sleep in until 7 am!  We quickly headed downstairs to open stocking & get coffee for mommy, daddy, & grandma.    And then it was present time...

Let's start with Andrew.  He is at the perfect age for the holidays.  He LOVES toys & it's really hard to restrain myself from buying everything that he wants on his wish list.  One of his favorite gifts this year include a new Buzz Lightyear (that Aiden picked out all by himself!) to replace the broken one that he has been playing with all year.  Other favorite gifts include some new costumes (thanks Target Halloween clearance) & pretend play items.  He is really into dress up & seriously has a costume on almost all day long! 

Aiden.  My little organizer, of course, was in charge of passing out presents & making sure that everyone took turns.  He was a little confused while the adults didn't get as many gifts as the kids.  My non-toy kid received lots of games, books, & activities to keep his busy mind engaged.  One of his favorite toys that he received came from Aunt Jill:  the Bee-Do Minion.  He has been asking for that silly minion for at least 6 months.  Way to go Aunt Jill for that winning gift!  

  

Little Abby.  We were a little nervous for Christmas morning because a few days earlier when Aunt Jill was here to visit & we opened gifts, she cried that everyone else's gifts weren't for her.  She really wanted Aiden's Bee-Do minion & Andrew's Batbot.  Thankfully, she seemed pretty content wandering around the Christmas room most of the morning & playing with her new random toys.  Of course, her favorite are her new dolls and stroller.  She is a little mommy at heart!

Here are a few more favorite pictures from Christmas morning.  Chris & I are very thankful for the gifts that we received from our families as well.  It truly is a magical time & we are so blessed to be able to share our love for Christmas with our three little ones.

More Christmas Memories Continued...

We may have spent some of the holiday season at the doctor & someone was trying to be "jolly" although he wasn't so well.  It was a rough month of illness!

 Baby Abby

 Our little shepherd at his holiday preschool program

 Christmas Jammies

 Christmas JOY:)

 Decorating the tree.  (Notice Superman Andrew in the background!)

 Santa Baby.

 My three sweethearts!

 Brothers.

 All ready for his Christmas program.

More Christmas Memories

I'm sharing some of my favorite pictures from the holiday season to remember some of the special & fun things that we did this year.  I feel like we may not have done this much this year with three wild little children, school schedules, & birthdays to celebrate this holiday season was BUSY!  But, I love some of the pictures that show the joy of the holiday season.

Town Lunch with Santa

Making Sugar cone Christmas Trees

He loves his baby sister!

Pancakes with Santa Breakfast at the Firehouse

A special dinner out in the Mosaic District.  Aiden got all dressed up for a rare dinner away from home!

Someone did not love Santa this morning!

A better picture with the wooden Santa!

One of my favorite pictures.  Hanging out with the reindeer at the Mosaic District.

Game night by the Christmas tree.

We love just hanging out by our tree.

The Annual Christmas Tree Hunt

I'm going way back in time to November when we did our Annual Christmas Tree Hunt.  This is one of our family's favorite days of the year ( or at least Chris and I love it!).  We headed out the weekend before Thanksgiving because we knew that we were going to be gone for the holiday & wanted to get our tree set up & ready to decorate the moment that we got back.  

This year, we headed out about 45 minutes west of here to Snickers Gap Tree Farm.  It is a far cry from the city life where there are rolling hills & lots of farmland.  I would say that we survived, but not quite thrived, out there.  The boys did well but Abby was not having it.  We headed to the doctor the next day to have a diagnosis of RSV:(  

Another adventure for our little family!  And more little Christmas updates to come.  I am trying hard this year to keep up to date with the blog as I know it is such a special document of our family's life & I will regret it if I don't keep it updated!

A Very Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas vacation & it's hard to believe that it is coming to an end!  Chris was off for the full two weeks and it was absolutely amazing to have both of us home, no traveling, & just being together as a family.  Honestly, I don't have a lot of pictures from the past two weeks because I put my camera down, put my computer away from blogging & Christmas shopping, & we really just relaxed and spent time as a family.  I had a giant to-do list of things I wanted to do but honestly most of the things are still not done, but I can say that we truly enjoyed a "break".  We played games, read books, watched movies, managed to get out of the house a few time and just truly enjoyed a full two weeks of everyone home.  We enjoyed a great visit from both of my parents & a special visit from Aunt Jill and cousin Jack.  We spent time with friends & had a fun trip into DC for Zoolights & Old Town for lunch with friends visiting from Connecticut.  Even with the fun moments, trust me that we didn't have our share of arguing siblings, complete mess of a house, & yes, I may be slightly looking forward to that school bell ringing at 9 am tomorrow but this break was good, wonderful, & much needed.  The true gift of this Christmas season wasn't all the gifts & glitz, instead it was about just having this rare time to "just be" together!