The Christmas Post

Sand and Water table! The boys LOVED this, they will play with it for hours on end!

Chase happy about getting some Lincoln Logs

Landon with his basketball

Christmas morning seeing the evidence of Santa's visit

Jama Time! The crazies in their christmas eve jamas

Mary and the babe lying in a manger (being from a house made up of mostly boys we find ourselves lacking in the doll department)

Thank goodness the nativity consists of a predominately male cast

The Shepherd and his reluctant "sheep"

Our joyful Wise man

Joseph readying the lone Wise man (Chase) and the Shepherd (Landon)

Only a little over a month later...here is our Christmas recap. We spent our Christmas here in Arizona this year with just our little family. It was pretty wonderful.

On Christmas Eve we had a big ham dinner with potatoes, rolls, salad, and all the traditional yummies. We did our nativity and had a great time teaching our boys about why we celebrate Christmas. We opened our Christmas Eve pajama presents, got changed into our new jamas, then gathered around the Christmas tree and sang Christmas hymns while we ate sugar cookies. It was toasty, and glowy, and super cozy. Chase set out some cookies and milk for Santa then it was off to bed for the wee little ones.

Chase woke up early the next morning (no surprise) and was broken hearted when we told him that we had to wait for his little brother to wake up before we go see if Santa visited our house the night before. We watched How to Train Your Dragon while we waited and did some puzzles to pass the time. Finally we heard a little squeal from "Panda" and it was go time. We let the boys loose on their presents from Santa and their stocking goodies first. Then we took turns tearing into our other gifts. As our kids get older, the holidays become so much more magical as we see it from their point of view and have the pleasure of reveling in their pure joy. We cleaned up and made our traditional Rabanada (Brazilian french toast) breakfast then spent the rest of the day (running 13 miles for me) and relaxing, and playing with all of our new toys! We got to go over to our good friends the Garrett's house for Christmas day dinner and we had a wonderful time eating delicious food and spending time with some of our Arizona "family". Perfect day.