Merry Christmas Day

This Christmas was filled with joy & blessings! It was the 1st year in 6 that Jason & I stayed at our own house Christmas Eve night. We usually spend the night at my mom's where she & my step-dad still "played" Santa. The real deal sneaking presents out under the tree in the middle of the night filling stockings while we slept and even addressing some of our presents "from Santa." If you ask me or my sisters we still "believe" in Santa. This was the 1st year that our presents were actually wrapped under my mom's tree before Christmas day. But it was ok to leave that tradition behind...after all we are all grown adults with our own children now.

But this year with Jake getting older and knowing more about Christmas we thought it was time we spent Christmas Eve night at our own house. It was so fun "being" Santa in our own home this year. Getting all the gifts out for Jake and putting together the BIG toy. And then of course Jason eating the Santa cookie. But the biggest joy was Jake coming down the stairs Christmas morning and saying "yook, pessents" as soon as he saw them. And then as he rushed to the tree he passed the Santa plate and stopped saying, "Santa eat my cookies." He was so excited about those. He immediately went over and began playing with his work bench and saying he was "fising" everything. It was so much fun watching him and the excitement on his face as he opened each gift. Taking time to thoroughly check out what each one was. Then pushing buttons if it had any and then it was on to the next.

It was even more fun for me as I opened the best present of all my Bright red Kitchenaid mixer from my amazingly wonderful hubby. But then Jake was so excited for me too and said "daddy & my bought that for you." He was so excited for me to open my gift that he & Jason had picked out for me. So after all it seemed that even with all the things he received this year we are still building a heart of giving in our sweet little boy. (side note: with my mixer I also got $60 Khols cash (did I mention I have an amazing husband) but while Jake & I were at Khols looking at what I was going to buy he saw the mixers and said "yook, daddy & my bought for you." )

All in all we had a wonderful Christmas!! Enjoy some pictures from our Christmas day.









The after math...huge mess, but so much fun!!

Christmas Part 1

Christmas Eve we spent the afternoon with Jason's parents and enjoyed a yummy lunch. It was great being able to spend time with them and Jake really enjoyed playing with "mawmaw & papa Jack." After leaving there we headed to Christmas Eve service at church. It really made this Christmas super special being able to attend the church service. Because my nephew's were going to only be at my mom's that night we headed there after church. So the boys could all be together for a little while that night & open presents from Nana & PawPaw.

Happy Birthday Jesus

I invited my nephews over for some cookie decorating and to celebrate Jesus' birthday. Thanks to the great Happy Birthday Jesus kit that lifeway put out. We had some fun decorations, plates & napkins Caleb & Jake also took a little break to watch part of a Mickey Mouse Christmas movie. I think everyone had fun decorating(making a mess) their sugar cookies. And we all enjoyed singing Happy Birthday to Jesus and eating "jisis cake" as Jake called it. Funny: the next day we went to a wedding and Jake kept calling the wedding cake "jisis cake" too.

Ho-Ho-Ho

Jake loves telling us that Santa says "ho, ho, ho." He also will tell you all about the "cany can" santa gave him or sitting on Santa's "yap." And for some reason every time Jake bumps a body part or makes up a "boo-boo" for me to kiss when I ask him what happened he says "Santa, hurt me." No idea why he thinks Santa hurts,but since Santa is his new favorite thing to talk about Santa also gets all the pretend blame.

Yes, we invite Santa to our Christmas. I know lots of people who don't "do" the Santa stuff. He isn't the center of our focus, but he does come to our house and bring presents. There is just something so magical about believing in Santa. And I think as long as we are teaching Jake the true meaning of Christmas that it is the day we celebrate the birth of our savior the greatest gift ever given!!! Then there is no harm in believing in a jolly man who brings good cheer and kindness to all...as well as some presents too ;)

Last year we started the tradition of having Jake's picture taken with Santa along with his cousin who is 4 months older then him. Last years picture both boys were crying and totally freaked out by the jolly man. This year I thought would be even worse. Jake is all about talking about Santa and telling us what Santa says. But if the Santa talks or makes any kind of motion he is terrified. So I thought once the real Santa started talking to him he would be over it. But this Santa was so great and gave him a candy cane and then Jake just sat on his lap. He looks scared to death, but he is sitting on his lap. My nephew was crying, but nothing like last year.

Gingerbread House

Have I mentioned before how amazing Jake's Sunday Praiseland teachers are? If not...they are! They are a husband & wife who do such an amazing job teaching Jake's class. We are so blessed to have them in our life.

Along with teaching on Sundays they also set up other things outside of church for the parents to get together or craft days. This past week Kaye-Kaye put together a gingerbread house party. Several of us mom's got together and "helped" our kids make a gingerbread house. A lot of the kids were more interested in eating the candy then making the house. Surprisingly Jake didn't catch on to the eating until we started using skittles. We all had a great time and talking and decorating. And the kids enjoyed their sugar high too!!!

Beautiful Star

Every year since Jake was tiny...(not even 2 months old for the 1st one...yes, I shed a few tears when I was putting the collage together...he was so tiny!!) Jason has held him up to the tree to "help" put our star on top. Just thought you might want to take a trip down memory lane. And have a glimpse of our sweet boy growing up over the years. Ugh...still can't get over that 1st Christmas picture...he was so tiny!!!

O' Christmas Tree

We decorated our most perfect tree the other day. It was fun doing it all together as a family. Of course I am always the photographer so it doesn't seem like I was helping, but really I did. Jake loved taking each ornament out of the box and handing it to Jason. He didn't care so much about putting them on the tree. I was worried that since we let him help decorate the tree he would constantly be taking ornaments off the tree. But he hasn't touched any of the ornaments since we decorated. I am sure now that I mentioned this I will spend all day tomorrow telling him to leave the tree alone.