All Things Christmas

We had a wonderful, though insanely fast, Christmas - the entire month of December just flew by so quickly. I know they say that time goes faster the older you get, but this is getting a bit crazy!    

The week before Christmas, in-between Christmas shopping, cookie baking, holiday parties, etc, I was able to get baby Barrett over for a few pictures.  I had seen a neat idea on Pinterest so I had Ella be my stand-in model so I could try to get the lights right.  

I made the mistake of touching B with my cold hands and that set him off on some crying.  Oops.  He did give some smiles to his mama though even if he was a little cranky at me!

We thought we'd put him in a stocking, but his stocking was too small to put him in, so I found my stocking from the hospital and put him in there.  He didn't seem to mind too much.

He's such a cutie pie - it's fun to have a baby in the family again, especially one that I don't have to get up and feed at all hours of the night ;)

It was neat when we decorated the mantle this year - Silas had brought home his Gingerbread man from school and now we have Mason's kindergarten snowman,  Ella's kindergarten Gingerbread girl and Silas' kindergarten Gingerbread boy. A complete collection  :)

On Christmas Eve we had a nice, non-stressful evening.  Abby and Carson's mom, Jennifer, had taken Ella and Silas to the zoo lights the day before, so Justin and I were able to get EVERY present wrapped, and didn't have to do it at midnight on Christmas Eve. It was wonderful!

Instead, we got to decorate Christmas cookies that Aunt Amanda and the kids had made.  Some of the cookies got a little blobby as they baked, they puffed out quite a bit.  That gave the cookie decorators the idea to get creative with them - kinda like "what's that cloud look like?" only with icing.

Silas had made some reindeer food with a new recipe at school.  So before bed, he and Ella went out and sprinkled it on the lawn. 

After the kids were in bed, Justin and I had our eggnog by the light of the tree.  One of my favorite parts of Christmas :)  We had a wonderful tree this year - from Lowe's again.  The shape was perfect, the size was perfect for the space and it barely lost any needles at all.  I wish we could box this one up and use it again every year!

The last look as I was going up the steps to bed...looking at this picture reminds me of my Christmases as a kid, probably because of the vintage look of the picture. Just the tree lit and everything all quite...I love that.

Christmas morning the kids slept in until 8am.  I was pretty impressed!  Especially with Silas because he had been all excited and was bouncing off the walls at bedtime.

Yes, Mason is a grump-butt!

Ella and Silas both got iPod Touches from Santa (now maybe they'll leave my phone alone!!)

Mason got a PlayStation 3 gaming system.

Silas was SOO excited about all the Legos that he got.  He spent HOURS at the table putting them together.

We spent the afternoon with the family at mom's and dad's and managed to get a picture of the kids all together.  Fun stuff!!

 

All three were very happy with their gifts and have played non-stop with the stuff that they've gotten. Mason even smiled a time or two :)  It was a great Christmas.  I hate that I do this, but it was on my mind that we are getting closer and closer to not having all the kids living at home for Christmas. Mason is a Junior now and in just a few years, it's hard to say where he'll be going off to.  I love that we have this time together NOW...maybe something that I need to work on for 2012 - to stop getting ahead of myself!!