Christmas-Christmas-Christmas!!!

This one might be a doozy. I will begin with the decorating for Christmas. I know it deserves a post all it’s own, but for the sake of time and because it's already New Year’s Eve, let’s just do 1 post for the Christmas festivities.

Decorating for Christmas. It is one of the highlights of my year. It always has been. Growing up it was always a big family affair. We didn’t do dinner on that night, but instead had chips, queso, mini quiche, little smokies, and other appetizer-type foods and of course Christmas cookies. Appetizers are way better than a real meal, so I have carried on this tradition with our family. Even when it was just Jeremy and I. Sadly, I would make a huge spread that 2 people would never be able to eat. So we pulled out all of the Christmas boxes, among the many other boxes and began putting up the tree and decorating. We hung our 4 stockings. I've looked up at our mantel several times to see those 4 stockings. God has grown our family so quickly. Here's a quick rundown that has gone through my head when I see the stockings.
Christmas of 2006 - a bit disappointed that we weren't pregnant after trying for 6 months.
Christmas of 2007 - we announce to family and friends that we have decided to adopt
Christmas of 2008 - Holden is almost 7 months and we feel so completely blessed. Finally 3 stockings on our mantel.
Christmas 2009 - We have 2 little boys! 4 stockings on our mantel.
Christmas of 2010 - I plan to still only have 4 stockings on our mantel! :) We'll see what 2010 holds.
Back to our night of decorating fun! We hung our special ornaments.

Thank you Bradts for our new Texas ornament. Indeed, it is a special year to be back home.

An airplane for Holden.

And a sweet, brown Pea-in-a-pod for Pax.

Everyone wore they’re Christmas PJ’s.

Holden helped me ice and decorate some Christmas cookies. Obviously, sneaking in a bite here and there.

And notice Holden's little shout-out to the Hardin-Simmons Fightin' Cowboys! Yeehaw!

And then when more ornaments were coming off than going on, we decided to put the big boy to bed and finish the work ourselves. Maybe next year Holden will be more helpful? But then of course, Paxton will probably be into everything. Oh well! It was a fun night. And even though it was just 1 week shy of Christmas Day, I am so glad we went ahead and threw it all together. Unfortunately, no pictures of the finished product. The tree and all Christmas decor is still up at this house. I could go and snag some pictures, but honestly, I don't have time for that.

Skipping forward to our Christmas Eve, which was actually Christmas Eve Eve. We decided to celebrate our family of 4 Christmas on Christmas Eve morning so we could spend Christmas Day with our extended family. So Christmas Eve the boys cuddled into Jeremy’s lap for the reading of The Night Before Christmas.

Holden always wants to make sure little bubba has his paci. He knows how important those are.

And I just love this picture. Those big brown eyes staring up at daddy!

Now onto our Christmas morning. We began with the reading of the real Christmas story. During the reading of the Holy Scripture, Holden was running all over the place and I was trying to feed Paxton a bottle. It was a little bit chaotic. But such is our life right now. I think God understood. Santa isn’t a huge giver at our house. So he brought the boys each a book and some little goodies in their stockings. We got them each a toy, an outfit and then of course the Jesus gift that they opened a few weeks prior.

Here is Holden trying out his new golf clubs. This was Jeremy’s gift idea. He is a lover of golf. Jeremy. Not so much Holden, yet.

Here Holden shows Paxton his new shape sorter. So he's not ready for it yet. But maybe soon.

And here Paxton wishes you a big Merry Christmas.

Well, then you will never believe what happened! It began snowing. Oh so pretty! Our Christmas Eve snow. We hung out at the house for the day and mid-afternoon Jeremy began loading the car with presents and luggage for 1 stay overnight. At about 5pm we set out on the road to go to Jeremy’s aunt's house. They always celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve night. It’s only a 45 minute drive from our house. But we got word that traffic was terrible because of ice on the roads. There were many accidents. We had just gotten out of our neighborhood when Jeremy made the call that it wasn’t safe to make the trip. And by the time we got to her house, due to the traffic and ice, everyone would be done with the festivities. Here is Holden ready to hit the icey roads. See, we really did try to make it!

From Jeremy’s aunts, we were supposed to go on to my parents house and celebrate with them on Christmas morning. Also, canceled. Boo! So we stayed home for the first time ever on Christmas. And it wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I wanted to be with our families. Holden did get to play in our snow-filled backyard that morning.

All bundled up!

First thing he did was took a bite and began saying "yum,yum!" That gave Jeremy a little laugh.

But we just kind of had a lazy day in our PJ’s and did a little unpacking and preparing for company to join us. It definitely didn't "feel" like Christmas Day.

Okay, is anyone still hanging in with me? I know it’s getting boring. Sorry. So the day after Christmas, Jeremy’s sister, Brandy, her daughter Hannah and Jeremy’s mom all came for a night. That was a fun little celebration. Hannah got to play big cousin to the boys. And grandma got to have all 3 of her grandchildren together, which somehow has been rare. We played the new Wii and stayed out of the cold. It was a fun couple of days with family.

And that, my friends, was our Christmas festivities this year. The end!