Happy Holidays!

I hope every had a wonderful Christmas.  We enjoyed ours despite most of us fighting colds.  This was the first year in the nine Christmas'es Stephen and I have been married that we did our own thing for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.  Although I enjoy spending time with our extended family it was really nice to do our own thing as well.  We did spend Christmas Eve morning and Christmas afternoon with Stephen's family so we got a little of both worlds which was really nice.

On Christmas Eve we had a bunch of goodies.  We did a flannel board story of the Nativity Story with music included.  I was proud of Stephen for singing along with me so I didn't have to do a bunch of solos because the boys weren't on the bandwagon with singing.  Anyway, before I told them about the birth of Christ we talked about each one of their births and how special they are.  I thought it would be a good way to link their personal lives to the birth of Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas.  I think they enjoyed it.

After that we put out some milk and cookies for Santa as well as some carrots for the reindeer.  They left a little note for Santa on the white board.  It says "Vance."  "Santa." "toys."  "thank you." and "Tanner"  They also drew him some cookies.

 It is hard work to get a good picture of the three boys together.  Especially when the little one is trying to bolt and the other two won't smile, but here is my Christmas Eve attempt.

 I took a picture before the gift unwrapping happened.  We had some "Christmas Cereal" for breakfast and then went onto the festivities.

 Porter opening a gift from Santa.

 Tanner opening a gift that was in his stocking.

 Vance opening a gift from his stocking.

 The boys got this hexbug toy from my parents.  They love it (Stephen does too).

 We went to church with Stephen's parents so we could hear Grandpa give a talk.  I tired to take a picture of them after church.  They weren't interested.

 As uninterested in a picture of the three of them, they really were not interested in a picture with their two cousins, but we tried!

We also attempted a nice family photo.  At least we are all there...

Here is a video of Vance and Tanner opening their gift from my parents.  I posted a different one on facebook as well as more pictures.