Christmas 2017

*It feels so crazy writing about Christmas, now that we're into February, but I'm insisting upon getting caught up to real time. And also, I may be a little hazy on details since this all happened over a month ago. Onward...

As I mentioned in the Tazewell post, we came home from Virginia on Sunday afternoon so that we could attend a Christmas Eve service at our church. Well, we got home in just enough time to literally throw all the Christmas gifts and our luggage from the weekend in the house, run around like mad people getting dressed, then rush out the door to get to church. Christmas Eve services are always very well attended and we wanted to get there in plenty of time to get a good seat...which didn't happen...but luckily MaSha got there early and saved room for us!

The service was beautiful and we all especially loved the music. The boys did pretty well staying quiet, but there may have been some lying down on the floor, walking in the aisle and sleeping on a grown up shoulder, but all in all, they were good. They're not used to being in church because they go to Sunday school and children's church so I was satisfied with their behavior, knowing that it's not an everyday occasion for them to know exactly how to act.

After church we got home and took a few family pictures.

Love my sweet family!

Boys and MaSha

The stinkers

MaSha came home so she could spend the night and be there on Christmas morning with us. She helped me with our Christmas Eve dinner. Then we made some egg-free sugar cookies and decorated them so we could put a few out for Santa...and eat a few....and save a few more for potty rewards (yes, that is STILL happening)!

Soon after that, it was bedtime! Our house was a literal wreck from us having such a quick turnaround between getting home and going to church and then immediately coming home and eating dinner and making cookies - there was stuff everywhere from our Tazewell trip. We needed a little downtime to clean up in anticipation of a visit from our buddy, Santa! 

Before the made the boys go to sleep, we read "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" and even heard Santa's sleigh bells outside! It was amazing. We discussed with the boys that Santa doesn't come until all the kids are asleep and they took our advice and went to bed. They didn't want to ruin the opportunity for Santa to come and leave them some gifts!

The next morning, we were so grateful and excited to see that Santa came!!!!

When the boys woke up, we made them wait
on the stairs so that we could all go see together!

William got a Lego football field and football players!
He was talking about it non-stop leading up to Christmas!

Santa brought some great stuff! He got them all snow bibs for next time we get snow/ice, Ryan got a driving/car toy, Stokes got some awesome die cast cars of Lightning McQueen and Jackson Storm (from Cars 3) and William got his Lego football toys plus lots of great stuff in the stockings. Yay for Santa!

After the Santa presents were opened and played with a little, we took a break to do breakfast. 

Stokes helped MaSha made egg-free
biscuits

After a yummy and big breakfast, we went to the tree to open more presents!

New bikes from Abby!

Ryan got one too!
It's a special bike just for him. More on that
in a future post!

Seriously?!?! How cute are they?!?!

Some downtime after all the excitement!

FaceTiming with cousins

Later that afternoon, we had to take their new bikes for a spin! Between MaSha, Thomas and myself, we rotated helping each of them figure out their new wheels.

The rest of the day was very easy-going. We watched some new movies they got as gifts and kept playing with the new toys. It was just relaxing and fun! It was such a great Christmas and seeing it through a child's eyes is unlike any other experience! There is joy and magic in everything. This year we all really, really enjoyed everything and we were so glad that MaSha was there to celebrate the day and spend time with us!