Our Christmas in Pictures

Too many pictures. Not enough time. Not enough time to take them well or edit them well. Gonna let the pictures do most of the talking. Some captions here and some highlights there. 

Two days before Christmas, Matt turned 38, and we celebrated him with Momo's pizza, a Texas sheet cake, and some tasty libations. It was just right.

Sweet cuddles with Grandpa....I love these moments.

Our Christmas was merry. Very merry....once it finally got underway and the to-do lists were finally tossed into the trash. I felt the stress slipping off of my shoulders as we sat down for the children's mass on Christmas Eve. I loved seeing the boys all dressed up. So glad I was able to get a few pictures of them in their fancy duds before dashing off for Christmas Eve dinner at my folks'.

Their faces make me smile.

We had a great time at my parents place with the family for dinner. The boys were a wee bit excited about it all. Family, fun, Santa, you know....

Aunt Zany FTW

The two littlest boys zonked out on the car ride home, so we tucked them into bed. It was time for the sugar plums to start dancing in their heads. Eli took care of hanging everyone's stockings and getting Santa's treats ready. Finally, Daddy read Twas the Night Before Christmas before it was time for Eli to head to bed. We had been tracking Santa on our NORAD app, and we knew that we needed to hurry if Eli was going to be asleep before Santa came. 

And he came, all right. He filled their stockings until they were stuffed and brought each boy 3 gifts (just like baby Jesus!). 

Christmas morning, the boys were up before we were for the first time. They waited eagerly in their room until Daddy told them they could come down. It is always such a delight to see the look on their faces when they first see the tree and goodies. We took our time and took breaks to eat breakfast and play, so it took a while to get through it all, but the boys were overjoyed and thrilled with their gifts. So fun.

Jonah's first Christmas! Merry Christmas, Little One.

Eli had asked Santa for a real bow and arrow (he's been a little obsessed ever since reading and seeing the Narnia books.) I think you can see how excited he was about getting it. Go Santa!

This was Jonah's favorite gift, fo' sho.  

He threw this gift aside to get to the phone. He knows what he wants....

We eventually made it through all of the gifts, got dressed, and headed over to my parents place for Round 2. The boys were spoiled rotten and got more fun goodies. They loved playing with it all, spending QT with the grandparents, aunts, and uncles, and taking advantage of Grandpa's awesome back yard to try out some of the new toys. 

An Aunt Sandwich!!

The out-of-towners were leaving the day after Christmas, so we tried to spend as much time over there as possible. We even headed back over the next morning for more backyard fun and adventures.

And to wrap up the Christmas adventures, we headed out to The Lake to celebrate the season with our extended family too. My boys always love all of the fun runaround time outside. 

The remainder of our 12 Days of Christmas were spent relaxing, recovering, and playing with all of our new goodies. It was a really nice Christmas. Our first as a family of 5. I see new traditions beginning (...and some that need to be brought back) and more memory making in the coming years.

I finished taking down and packing up all of our decorations the last two weeks. Little by little....the cards and outside lights were the last to come down. The house looks so plain now. Bigger. But plain. Our new year has already been full and plans are being made to celebrate our baby turning one. Yikes! Hard to believe that I was super preggo this time last year. We had no idea that Jonah would be surprising us a little early. All of a sudden, I am feeling overwhelmingly nostalgic and sentimental. Deep breaths, Mama. Deep breaths.