Ahh, Christmas. If I had blogged about it a month ago, I probably could remember a lot more details and cute things my boys did or said. Sadly, I didn’t. But I do have some cute pictures to commemorate the day. (Don’t mind the cats – they think they are allowed to be in every picture.)
It was kind of fun decorating this year. Having a new house and trying to figure out where to put things … like a Christmas tree. I don’t think this house was really built for a Christmas tree, but we made it work. To make it work, we had to take a section out of our couch and store it in Ricky’s room while the tree was up, but hey, it worked!
The boys’ big present from Kevin and I this year was a toy box. They now have a place to put their very own stuff and their brothers aren’t to get into them. It is working out well and they seem to like that ownership. I did hear Ricky tell Tommy just today that he could get something out of his (Ricky’s) toy box. Tommy was so excited to have that permission that I almost thought it was Christmas morning again!
We try to not overdo it much for the boys. We’ve asked Santa to just bring them one gift (it is always unwrapped and ready to play with right away) and we try hard to just give them one or two fun things, a book or two, and some clothes and pjs. However, the boys get gifts for each other and for Kevin and I and a few other people of their choosing. Even if we all got each other just one gift, that would be 7 people each buying 7 gifts … a minimum of 49 presents under our tree. I think we had a few more than that this year…and Bobby didn’t even give any presents this year!
The boys started waking up around 6:30, which was the time Grandmama arrived to see them open their gifts. Tommy was the last one awake and he wasn’t really ready to be awake yet.
With the layout of this new house, it was a bit trickier keeping the boys from seeing into the family room, but they were good sports and hung out on the very top step until I said it was time to come downstairs.
Tommy immediately broke into his stocking and ate a chocolate Santa. He was feeling much better and much more awake after that!
Bobby and Grandmama had a good time with his stocking …
It is always fun to sit back and watch the boys open their presents on Christmas. Sometimes they stop and play for a while, sometimes they eat some candy, sometimes they just want to keep opening more and more. They just seem happy on Christmas. I like that.
I also like putting present bows on babies’ heads. Yeah. I like that, too.
We spent the morning playing with toy castles and Ricky loving his new ipod. On Christmas afternoon we went over to my mom’s for lunch and more time with the extended family.
Flannel shirts for Christmas is a bit of a tradition and I love it! I even have one for Bobby, but he needed to wear his Christmas outfit for the day.
I know Kevin’s eyes are closed but this is the best family picture we got on Christmas. Sigh. Someone was either blurry or picking their nose or falling off the couch … 5 out of 7 looking pretty decent is as good as I got this year.
Then it was back home for new Christmas jammies and our favorite things pictures. This guy in his flannel jammie pants was one of my favorite things …
I mean seriously … isn’t he cute?
So cute that I had to pose him under the tree.
The other boys are all pretty cute, too. This was not planned … red couch, red and black pajamas, red and black favorite toys. I mean, sure, it was planned. Don’t you color coordinate all of your random family snapshots?
Again, trying to get all of them happy and smiling by the Christmas tree just wasn’t going to happen.
But I could get them all to look at the ceiling. Now that takes talent!
I also got this guy to kiss me by the tree … it was definitely my lucky day!
In all, it was a really nice Christmas day. And even if I can’t remember all the minute details to share, I can remember the feeling of watching those boys enjoy their day together and play together. It’s a warm fuzzy memory.
Just as warm and fuzzy is watching your 9 year old son make a working radio all by himself. He was pretty proud! (Thanks for the present, Aunt Wendi!)
So that, in a small nutshell, was our Christmas Day 2013. Only 11 more months and we can do it again!