Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, family and friends- Joy to the world that the Lord has come to save us from our sins and graciously give us an eternal life in Heaven if we believe!

This has been an ever changing year with 3 little boys and while I still need more patience to deal with constant chaos, we are learning to slow down and enjoy the simple things.  Big J has been soooo interested in the true meaning of Christmas this year as he has brought me his nativity advent calendar first thing in the morning every day of this month.  He was so excited to for the 25th to come along so that he could celebrate Jesus' birthday.  We read a few different story books on the birth of Christ and he took every detail in.  I overheard him telling K about why Jesus came to earth and as a mom, I couldn't help but melt at his excitement in the matter.  These tender early childhood moments reinforce the need to train and guide their little hearts everyday!

Finally, the day came that he opened the 24th box from his Advent calendar and he knew that it was Christmas Eve...  We celebrated with our usual get together with Mike's side of the family. 

Family picture after the gathing... We all look a bit tired and full of homemade tamales, pasole & pie!

Boys waiting patiently for everyone to arrive so that we could eat and open presents.

 K getting loved on by Dad and great grandparents.

 J roughhousing with uncle A!

 I guess Santa was in the neighborhood... This one was a pretty funny Santa telling lots of jokes, K just kinda stared for awhile.

 Little J wasn't so sure about this silly guy.

 Santa handed out foods that the kids love this year- cheese balls, frosted mini wheats & animal cookies.

 You don't need to get K any gifts, he just likes to play with the gift bags.

 He also REALLY likes bubble gum flavored chapstick... He ate the whole thing by the end of the night.

 I finally completed little J's 1 year memory book... you can check it out for yourself here if you wish.

After a fun night with family, we put the kids to bed, cleaned the house and got ready for brunch in the morning... Christmas Day rolled around really quickly with some eager to wake up kids in the morning!  Stocking suffers kept them busy while I cooked and we all waited for G&G R to show up. 

The excitement of a 4 year old getting something (ANYTHING!) is hilarious... J had so much enthusiasm about opening gifts!  I think we could have given him a rock and he would have ran around the house shouting "Yes, that is just what I wanted!!!". 

Matching PJ's to wear from Grandma R! 

 He was very proud of his new analogue 'Spiderman' watch that he asked for over and over!

 Yay, G&G are here!

 Let the opening begin.

 Little J's favorite new toy of the day was this green ball

 Group gift... a Zoo set for all of them.

 ...It took us forever to put the pieces together!

Mike recently converted some of our old VHS family videos into DVDs so we had fun watching our1985 Christmas gathering with my parents, it is hard to believe they were younger than us in those videos! 

Another highlight of the day was to Skype with my brother's family cross country.  We just learned how to use this technology and this was the first time my parents got to experience it.

Hi R family!  The kids had fun showing each other what they received for Christmas.

 And this is what we looked like! 

It was fun filled day and finished off with ham and scalloped potatoes, Yum!  Merry Christmas!