christmas day 2010

i can hardly believe that christmas has already come and gone! there are still several reminders of it though at home... the tree and all the decorations are still up! :) i want to post about christmas day so here goes! actually, this first collage is from christmas eve. trace holding the santa that says 1 more day til christmas, and then him with santa's cookies! i love the sweet look on his face. he was so excited! and he wanted to leave santa chocolate milk, and i'm sure our santa appreciated that! :) christmas morning the boys woke up a little before 7, which is typical. and in true lucas form, he woke up screaming like a nut! trace kept trying to run in the living room to see if santa came, but we were scrambling for the video camera! when they finally walked in and saw everything, they were amazed! it only took a minute for them to wake up and start tearing into the presents!
trace got a harry potter wand that lights up and makes (wand?) noises. he loves it. sometimes lucas gets a hold of it and starts swinging it around. trace says lucas is a baby harry potter. so funny! trace also got a bumblebee, all 3 toy story movies, and a few other little things. lucas got a thomas laptop that he loves, along with some thomas trains, a few cars and trucks, and also the cat and the hat movie (which the boys love right now!) lucas was so funny, he would says "mama" and hand me every little piece of paper that he ripped off. i bet i heard MAMA 900 times!

after we did presents at our house, we went to bitsy and poppi's for our annual christmas brunch and presents with them and josh and shannon's family. we were so excited that it started to snow on our way over to mom's. the excitement continued to increase as we realized the snow was starting to stick! it was sooo pretty! at moms, we had more than our fill our delicious food, and then the fun began!

last year i came across these awesome stockings at old navy for only $1!! i love the way mom hung them up this year. i took this pic of the big kids looking out the window when the snow was falling. love it!

lucas is in love with "baby timofee." he is the sweetest thing. timothy that is, not lucas! :) most of the time lucas is sweet too! i love this pic of bitsy and the little boys! and the bottom right pic, where poppi is feeding them snow! HOW FUN!

the kids racked up and got lots of cool presents. i can't remember what all they got, but trust me. it was more than they deserve! ;o)

oh wait, here's just some of their loot! oh yeah, santa also brought them these tents that they love! from cousins and grandparents they got lots of other goodies... swords, books, puzzles, bibleman dvd, pjs, you name it! we still haven't found a place to put all the new toys. i just made a trip to the hannah home today, and i think another round of clean up is already in order soon!

and this is the only family shot we managed to get... but believe me, you gotta take what you can get with these 2 monkeys!

we had such a wonderful christmas. it is always so special to celebrate with our family. the kids got some good presents and fun toys, but we also work hard to teach them the real meaning of christmas. one of my favorite purchases before christmas was the little people nativity play set. (i lucked up and got it on sale, which you can do if you try hard enough!!) both boys LOVE it. every nite they would ask to play with baby jesus! and actually, one day when lucas was at the dr, he saw a santa statue on the front desk. when he pointed to it and said "baby jesus!" i knew he may have been a little confused, but he had def been listening when we taught him what christmas is all about!!

as the boys get older and get so excited about christmas, i think every year i say this was our best christmas! so i'm sure i will say it again next year, but for the record, this was the best christmas ever! :)