Christmas Eve 2014

 

  We spent Christmas Eve morning just relaxing around the house and then got ready for Christmas Eve service at church at 11:00.  Here are my two best gifts ever all ready for church. 

 

 Cody LOVED being in big church and listening to the music.

 We were really excited that Stephen's mom and dad joined us for church! 

 It isn't great, but it's the best family pic we got from service.

 Cody, Papaw, and Daddy

 

 

 

 We had a lazy afternoon and then our traditional Christmas Eve dinner and cookie decorating with Dave, Paige, and Mia!

 

 

 Cody, of course, was ready for bed much earlier than the rest of us.  We took some traditional 'Christmas pjs by the tree' pics before he went to bed.  He and Jake had matching pjs, but Jake didn't have his on yet.

 

 

 It took me a little bit to get Cody down with all the fun going on, the crew was hard at work decorating cookies by the time I joined them.

 Jake decided this year was the year of the icing.  Each of his cookies had to have every color of icing on it...poor Santa!

 Picking out which cookies to leave for Santa

 This year Jake wanted to make special food for the reindeer, food that would make them fly.  Thanks to Pinterest I found just such a food ;)  We mixed oatmeal with sprinkles.

 

 

We left some on Rudolph's plate, but then we also went and scattered some all over the front yard.

 Next up, a letter for Santa.  Jake started it, but got tired so I took over while he told me what to write.

 

 Jake also insisted that Santa would want orange juice and not milk this year.  Here is Santa's table this year, complete with the toys Jake left for Santa to take for little boys who needed presents.

 Our family tradition is that Jake gets to open one present from us on Christmas Eve.  Every year, it has been his Christmas pajamas.  This year he actually wore the same from last year because I found matching ones for Cody (and his still fit!)  Instead of pjs, he got a few other fun things.

 A Santa Claus plate and cup for Christmas morning breakfast

 Then it was bedtime, but first Stephen ready the Christmas story from Luke.

 

 And then Santa Claus came!

 Jake got a Christmas puzzle, Mario Kart, and two controllers to go with it.

Cody got a musical ball popper toy.

 Santa also left notes for the boys.

 I took a picture of the mantle, but at the time did not realize how blurry it was...so this is what I have, awesome!

 

We knew the boys would be up early and Santa was very smart this year and got toys that needed zero assembly!  We were in bed early and excited for Cody's first Christmas! 

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Awanas Christmas Program 2014

The Sunday before Christmas, our church had its Awanas Christmas program.  It wasn't anything fancy, but anything Christmas is always fun!

 

The Sparks singing Away In A Manger and We Wish You a Merry Christmas....my pictures are all blurry because Cody was trying to 'help' mommy take pictures.  Jake is in the front row, about 4 in from the right...he has on a blue stripped shirt under his Sparks vest.

 

 

 Mr. Tiny, our children's pastor, told the story of the nativity by calling up clubbers to open presents from under the tree.  Each gift had part of the nativity in it.  The clubbers that were called up were those who had learned the most verses/sections so far this year.  Jake was called up from the Sparks!  He had learned 11 verses and covered 19 sections (and that's with missing quite a bit when football season got crazy!)  We were super proud of Jake!  His box had Joseph in it.

A Trip to See Santa

We finally made it to see Santa, the Saturday before Christmas.  We have always taken Jake to Bass Pro, but since we are going much later in the year and on a weekend we decided to stick a little closer to home and a little smaller; we went to Colin Creek Mall.  There was almost no line and even though it wasn't as fancy as Bass Pro, it was perfect for us this year with Cody being so little.

 

 

 

 Waiting in line, a whole ten minutes!

 Someone was very excited!

 I had no idea how Cody would react to meeting 'the Big Guy' for the first time. 

 

 And the end result....we could not get him to smile, but hey, he wasn't crying so I count that as a win!  His sweet little face, I can just see him trying to figure out where on earth we have taken him.