Forgot to rotate this. Whoops. But this was the only homemade Christmas I did this year. These were for my best friend Katie's daughters. They are the same ages as my boys. And they always match!! It was so fun to make these for them. Big shout out to the worker at Joann's on Black Friday night that answered all my questions about sewing jersey fabric!
They love the tree and had so much fun putting decor on! I, on the other hand, am apparently OCD and spent the next 4 weeks rearranging!
Thank you SnapChat for the fun fitlers!
Mason wanted to help. Notice I had to correct his cutting line?? Oh well. Practice makes perfect!
Oh and every time new presents appeared, he got SO excited when he noticed them!
We went on a train ride to see Santa! Hagen Park in Rancho Cordova has a little steam train that is run by some train association here! It was $5/person to ride, and we got to meet Santa at the end! We took pics with him, but didn't want to pay for the USB drive, so we took a pic of the screen. Well, our sweet friends we were with bought our drive for us! So we got good copies of our Santa pictures :) Thanks Toone's! The boys LOVED riding the train, and apparently during the summer it's free, so we will be doing that definitely!
Ward Christmas party, some of the primary kids watching the live entertainment!
It wouldn't be Christmas without cookies! I made over 4 dozen sugar, 4 dozen chocolate snow drop, and 3 dozen peppermint chocolate chip cookies to deliver to friends and neighbors! I also did white chocolate covered popcorn with red and green M&M's for teacher gifts! As we were sick the week and a half before Christmas, some didn't get delivered for a couple days after. But that's okay!
Helping frost cookies! I had to help Luke get the frosting on, and helped with the sprinkles. Then he licked the frosting off his cookies. Mason did good on his own, and enjoyed eating the cookies after, and then finishing off Luke's! So gross but oh well.
Once during a devotional, President Monson mentioned he read Charles Dicken's "The Christmas Carol" every year at Christmas. I got a copy a few years ago and decided to ready it this Christmas! These two passages from Marley's visit stood out to me! It's also fun watching all the different movie versions and seeing what is exactly from the book!
We skipped church on Christmas Eve since we were all sick and so very, very tired. But we managed a good meal! Lamb, ranch roasted potatoes, broccoli, green beans, and Rhodes rolls!
Stockings and the tree after Santa came! We all got a little container of cereal, and Mason and Luke each got a book, stickers, and a new Mickey Mouse shirt. Mason got a Cruz Ramirez car and binoculars, and Luke got a Cruz Ramirez and Mater cars. Luke's Santa gift was kitchen stuff for our toy kitchen, and Mason got a new scooter! Well sort of...
Turns out, I wasn't paying close enough attention when I was ordering gifts on Black Friday, and I bought a full on adult size scooter. Whoops! Mason was seriously so good about it though, and after I read him the note he said, "Yeah, that's not a Lightning McQueen scooter." Also, in our favor, the one we got was damaged, so we can take it back for a full refund. Hallelujah!! We ordered just the normal Razor scooter from Target today and Mason saw the picture and said "Yep, that's good!"
Santa also brought our family Cars 3! The boys were so happy!
Mason and his stocking stuff! He LOVES this book. My parents have the copy we read when we were kids, and we read it probably 6 times a day when we were down there. We bought a copy for my friend's daughter for her birthday in September, and I secretly bought a second copy for Mason, so when he pulled it out he gasped and said "it's just like Claire's book!" Sharp memory kid!
The only good stocking pic I got of Luke. He woke up after Mason did, and when he came out, he saw Mason's Cruz car and tried to take it. When Mason pulled it away, Luke started sobbing until I sat him down and put his stocking in front of him and had him reach in. His sobs stopped immediately when he saw his own Cruz and Mater! He hasn't let them out of his sight since!
We played with gifts while breakfast cooked, and then watched Cars 3 while we ate! The boys were so content, Sean was the one that was impatient! He finally turned off the movie and Facetimed his parents so we could open gifts in front of them.
The boys got A LOT of different Cars books, a couple puzzles, stuffed hippos (they got a hippopotamus for Christmas), and this awesome teepee from my sister in law! Her work sells them and was discontinuing this model so she got it for a GREAT price! Sean got a new french cuff white dress shirt, a new tie, new dress socks, a Random Facts book, and Elder Bednar's new book. I got a 16x20 print of the Timpanogos Temple for our living room, and a new dress that will be great for nursing! And we went to Target the day after to get me a few new clothes too. We wanted to go before Christmas but we were too sick! Oh I also ordered myself a Sonicare toothbrush on Black Friday, but I've been using it for a couple weeks. Love it!
Christmas Dinner smoothies :)
We had such a merry Christmas and love being together as a family. Now we are looking forward to celebrating Luke's birthday and the new year, and praying for health and a healthy happy baby girl!!
