Christmas

We were lucky enough to have my mom and dad come stay with us for Christmas this year! We were all so excited!

I LOVE Christmas Eve almost as much as Christmas morning! The excitement and anticipation is the best! My mom brought Christmas Bingo, which was one of my very favorite Christmas traditions growing up. It was fun to see my kids love it as much as I did.

They also brought this cute puzzle of the Abominable Snow Monster. It was actually a really hard puzzle. Way harder than it looks! Ha! Then I made a joke about how I'd kill the kids if they messed it up and literally about a minute later I myself messed it up. Yep. I'm smart like that.

Cute slippers my mom brought for Joshua from my Grandma Winder-

Kate gets her flexibility from her grandma-

The boys went to see Star Wars! Michael accidentally bought tickets in 3D. Ha!

That night we went to the Loop of Lights (awesome neighborhood nearby that does seriously amazing Christmas tree lights - and almost every house participates!) and made sure to wear out the kids. This pic was taken there, even though you can't see much.

And then we came home home, left cookies out for Santa, and put the kids to bed!

That night we watched It's A Wonderful Life and were happy that Santa's job was pretty low stress and quick. :-) The next morning the kids were bouncing and so excited!! I had to get the picture of them at the top of the stairs of course-

And then the fun began! Matthew got a ninja turtle bike and ninja turtle toys, Josh got a train, and Kate got a princess house and roller skates. And of course the stocking! They also got some fun presents to unwrap, including Pop the Pig game, (SUCH a hit) books, stickers, and other random toys. Michael got a machete (sword? giant knife?) from my parents and was SO excited about it. It was hilarious to watch his face light up when he opened it. :-) I got some gift cards, make up, and clothes. We all had so much fun, and LOVED having Grandma and Papa there to share in all the fun! 

Christmas fell on a Sunday and we had church at 10 so after the presents we ate a quick breakfast and then got in our church clothes. I kind of liked going to church on Christmas. Such a great way to remember the real reason for the season.

For New Years we pretty much just stayed home. It's hard to do too much when you have a house full of little kids that are gonna wake up at 6 a.m. no matter what time you or they go to bed. Ha! It's all good though - me and Michael don't mind. We kinda like taking it easy at home and watching the ball drop and then going to bed, barely having made it till midnight. Oh the joys of getting older and also being young parents. ;-) Josh woke up cranky around 11 and wouldn't go back to sleep so he got to party with us at midnight. :-) Luckily he finally conked out again around 12:30.

Hooray for an awesome 2016!