Our Christmas:)

Merry Christmas, everyone! Ours was rather quiet, but joyful. We celebrated the day before Christmas. Shaun worked Christmas day to help us get caught up with the bills, but we had a wonderful time with the boys. Its such a neat feeling to have the tables turned, and now we are the parents, hiding presents, and seeing the joy from the kiddos.

We didn’t get that many pictures, as we were just enjoying the moment and playing, but here’s the scoop:

Ethan enjoying his new Geotrax train set. It was a good one to get!

Shaun always gets me something big and fabulous, and this year it was a mixer! I’ve always wanted one of these, and never knew just how handy they are. That day, I made pizza and cookie dough, and mashed potatoes. Don’t know how I lived without it, its so great!! I felt like the tailor on Fiddler on the Roof, when he got his first sewing machine. It just makes life in the kitchen a little easier.

The happy boys!

Got Inception from the Balmforths, yea!!! I LOVE getting movies. I’m still a movie lover, especially of good action movies. This rocked my world. The movie is dang good. Much like Matrix, but an even deeper ride. It was great!

The destruction!

Later that day, this heavenly Barefoot Contessa Oatmeal cookie recipe. All us family hung out in the kitchen, listening to Christmas music, and eating dough. I loved it!

         

We had a Secret Santa deliver us gifts for the twelve days of Christmas. It was wonderful, and so thoughtful. Each night, we looked forward to a little something left on our doorstep. So thankful for them. Whoever you are, thank you so much:)

I was able to call some family and hear their voices on Christmas day. That really helped. Presents received in the mail were wonderful, too! Thank you, everyone:)

I made an amazing leftover Ham/potato casserole I found HERE on food.com. It was SO good, and so easy to make. I now look forward to making ham in the crockpot, just for this recipe. Oh, bliss!

Christmas day, I took the boys to the park. They pretty much had it to their selves. We played in the sandbox. We then got ambitious, and headed off to find a certain photo location that I’ve seen in many other local photographer’s pictures. It’s called the Art District, a big wall of graffiti art and murals. It’s basically downtown, in an alleyway. I let the boys run around, tried in vain to get some cool shots, and watched out for trouble. I’ll get pics up soon, and also pics of our latest train ride we went on! Gotta get caught up.

That night, I turned off the lights except the Christmas lights, and turned on the Joy to the World DVD, and prayed that the kids would get something out of it. It definitely brought the spirit of our Savior into our home. I was going to take them out to see lights, but they were getting pooped around 6pm. Guess you can’t do it all:)

And now, here we are with another year coming, a new chance to start fresh and do better. I just can’t believe how fast the time flies. It made me stop and think of how important each day is, and how I should treasure each moment with the kids and dear husband more and more. I’m trying to slow down and really listen to Ethan, really see drives his little passions and fire. Its been helping, that’s for sure! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Love you, all!