Merry Christmas!

Christmas is always such a fun time of the year!  The boys love to decorate the house, put up the tree, bake cookies, and wrap presents.  And, boy did we do all of those things....many times in some cases!

The hardest part is Christmas Eve.  Its waiting all day for Christmas to officially start!  That's the evening with NaNa, PaPa, and Aunt Robyn come to our house for a big dinner and lots of presents!  And, the waiting is soooo hard....because we sure have lots of fun!  

Waiting is sooo hard!

FINALLY!!!  Ripping open their packages!  

Adorable pic of Aunt Robyn and Chase!  :)

Daddy taking a picture of PaPa taking a picture!

Robyn showing the boys how to work their new Royal's fans!

What did you get, Aunt Robyn?

All the presents are opened now.  And, look at all those Lego's boxes!

After everyone left, the boys headed upstairs to get ready for bed.  Although its difficult to leave behind the new toys they desperately want to play with, they know this night, TONIGHT, is the most important night of the year for going to bed on time!  After a quick check of the radar to see Santa's location, and fast change into PJ's and brushing of the teeth, they jump into bed with no fuss.  They wouldn't dare be bad at bedtime on Christmas Eve!  That might jeopardize 12 months of worth of earning a place on Santa's good list!  

Early the next morning, Chase was the first one up!  He ran into Mommy's and Daddy's room so full of excitement and ready to go downstairs to see if Santa had come!  We told him to go wake up Cole (which didn't take more than a few seconds!).  And, the boys then both so excited to go downstairs that they decided to give each other a Christmas hug!

Hugs on Christmas morning!

 Sure enough, Santa had come!!!!!

Santa was here!!!!!

We got those disco balls we asked for!

Santa even left some bones and toys for Lucy too!

They both got each other the same duct tape!  CAMO!

Cole opening his MU Tigers shirt!

 After Christmas at our house, the next stop on Christmas morning was Nonnie's and Grandad's house!  It was fun to visit with lots of family we don't often see.  And, the boys were thrilled with their gifts!  Cole got a lathe (for kids!) so he can work on some woodworking projects he wants to build!  And, Chase got his very own Kindle!

I'm packed and ready go to home and get to work with my new lathe!

KINDLE of my very own!!!!!!!  (He's just a tiny bit excited!)

I had to get a picture of Daddy carrying Gracie.  I think the is the ONLY time this has ever happened!  Ha ha!

 After Nonnie and Grandad's house, we all headed over to MomMom's and Big Grandad's (aka "Biggie") house for lunch and more presents!  It was a little different this year because Uncle Mark was in Colorado.  Grandma NeeNee and Herb were missing because NeeNee had just had surgery on her leg and is confined to a wheelchair for a bit.  And, we were blessed with a visitor:  Dr. Charlie Jessup!  He has been the "family" eye doctor for years has grown close to our family.  He was alone this year and asked if he could join our family.  It was awesome to have him there!

The boys were so excited that we would have a special guest this year that they immediately went to work making him pictures.  Chase painted 2 pictures and Cole made a giant slowflake for him.  I love their big hearts and the way that they always want to give to others!

Hmmmm...who's present is THIS?!?

The boys opening their stockings!

The boys, Katie, Nonnie, and Aunt Mary.

WOAH......look at this giant mess!  Christmas must be over!  :)

I'm sure you noticed that has time went on, the amount of pictures we took were less and less.  I'm not sure why that happens, but we need to do a better job next year of taking more pictures on Christmas Day!  

At any rate, Christmas was super fun!  And, we all appreciated all the new stuff we got!  Can't wait to do it all again next year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!