Saturday, December 28, 2013

Christmas 2013 Recap

This year we spent Christmas with Drew's side of the family and had everyone come to us. I'm glad to report we had no catastrophe's like Thanksgiving, which was a welcome change for everyone involved ;)

Christmas Eve we went to our church's kid-friendly Christmas Eve service. They really go all out for the kids, giving them glow sticks (in lieu of candles), and let them jump on the chairs and run in the aisles. Unfortunately for us, we always seem to have one child imploding, even with all of the fun. Connor was literally 2cm away from pulling the fire alarm (can you imagine the chaos of 1500 adults and children in a fire drill on Christmas Eve?!), and then when he realized he wasn't going to "his church", he threw an epic tantrum. Thus, this is the only picture I got of any us at the service:
A merry #fellowshipchristmas to you from bah humbug Connor  ;-)
Clearly Christmas started on the right foot for our middle child....

The boys were VERY excited before bed on Christmas Eve, so trying to get them into bed and then to stay in bed was quite the feat.
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in their matching Christmas jammies before bed on Christmas Eve

We wrapped all packages and presents on Christmas Eve, set up the Bible and went to bed...
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I love love LOVE the Jesus Storybook Bible, and love how they penned the Christmas Story:
"Mountains would have bowed down. Seas would have roared. Trees would have clapped their hands. But the earth held its breath. As silent as snow falling, he came in. And when no one was looking, in the darkness, he came." 
So grateful for HIS gift to us!
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We always read the Christmas story before we open any presents. Drew's mom was a true champ, getting up in the wee hours of the morning so she could join us for all of the festivities.

In our house, Santa brings the gifts for the stockings, and then mom and dad give all the other gifts. The boys were super excited about new movies in their stockings:
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as well as light up light sabre tooth brushes:
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And this is where I admit to you that I was not very good at taking pictures Christmas morning. Our point and shoot camera maxxed out on the memory card before opening gifts, and since we were crammed in the kitchen due to the tree being in there this year, it just didn't bode well for good picture taking.
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the boys got Pottery Barn Kids beach towels. I had my eye on these earlier this year, and when they clearanced them out, I snatched them up for the boys, and then had them monogrammed at a local boutique.
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Connor got a Spiderman camping chair. (basically every gift Connor got had a Spiderman theme to it-- it's his fave right now, and so glad it worked out that way).

So the Christmas story of the year goes to Brayden. A few days before Christmas, I took Brayden to the doctor. Our doc was showing Brayden a really cool nerf gun and mentioned to B that he should ask for one from Santa for Christmas. So all this time with me racking my brain on what to get B, and 4 days before the big day, he finally gets it set in his mind that he wants a neon green (his favorite color) Nerf disc gun just like Dr. D. Problem: mom did not have time to go to the store in search for said gun, and assumed that the presents we had already gotten would be sufficient to appease any disc gun wants.

I assumed incorrectly. Literal tears on Christmas morning when he realized that the disc gun was not under the tree. To make matters worse, B's "big" gift was a Captain America transformer that ended up being a piece of junk that was broken before it even was able to be played with. I. felt. TERRIBLE. So Christmas afternoon we headed to Walmart (because I assumed it would be open) to get said disc gun. WALMART WAS CLOSED. Cue round #2 of tears. At this point I feel pretty crappy as a parent (see also: the darts I had gotten for the Nerf guns that they already owned didn't work, so I was in a double gutter. Cue feelings of inadequacy as a boy mom. Who knew Nerf darts were so complicated?!). I promised B that we'd go the day after Christmas, once Drew got off work. Fast forward to December 26th. We walk into the toy section, and turn onto the Nerf aisle. At this point the sinking feeling I had the day before returns, because apparently, unbeknownst to be, Christmas is to Nerf guns and Nerf ammo, what tornadoes and snow storms are to the bread supply. Every Nerf dart and disc that Walmart sells was completely sold out. Bless Brayden's little heart, this was the third heartbreak moment. I felt epically terrible for him. I promised him that we'd get it as soon as Walmart restocked their shelves. As we have been waiting I have researched all of the Nerf info. If you need info on Nerf, I am your girl. I have since learned that n-strike original guns can use the n-strike elite darts. I have also learned that the Nerf vortex guns (the one that Brayden wanted), is old technology that has been replaced with more fancy vortex disc guns (and different colors!). I found an online retailer who has the gun Brayden wants, so we'll have a remedy for all of this soon. THANK GOODNESS.

Carrying on....
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Ty was in quite the funky mood on Christmas day, so he didn't participate that much. He did open up a few gifts, and this was one of his faves.
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we kept with tradition and made a "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake. After we made it, Brayden told me that we couldn't eat it. When I questioned why, he said "mom, we can't eat that cake! It's for Jesus. We have to save it till we get to Heaven so we can eat it with him!" Oh, faith like a child.

After the cake was iced, we forgot to pick it up on the counter, which is never a good thing when you have a resident three year old (this is a video, which you may have to click HERE to view if you are reading this in a reader or on email)


Connor has been BEGGING for a scooter. It was one of his "big" gifts this year, and he was SO SO SO excited. I was thankful Christmas was relatively warm, so the boys headed out to scoot around together.
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at one point while we were outside, I looked up to find the boys sitting down together. I walked over to ask them what they were doing and Brayden said "well, we were a little tired. So we're taking a break." They sat there for atleast 10 minutes just talking and holding their scooters. I just love that they are best buddies.
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After our scooter fun we headed inside before naptime to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.
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All in all, it was a good Christmas. I feel like these Christmases over the next few years will be so precious; the kids are in the stage of really eating up all of the traditions and meanings and make things so much more fun. So grateful that God has given me these three precious babies and an awesome husband to celebrate life with. We are blessed!
 

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