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!

We have been busy this week!

Baking, cleaning, crafting... It was a busy, busy, busy week!  Alongside friend and family gatherings, last minute shopping and sitting back with the kids to remember the reason for the season, we attempted to soak up the fun festive parts of getting creative.  

Day 1: Gingerbread house- we took the easy way out and bought a kit, but the kids enjoyed building, decorating & of course eating the candy!

"Wow look at all that candy!"

 Decorating and admiring

 Hummm... Note to self, "Don't eat the yellow candies!".

 Proud little ones!

Day 2: Ornament decorating-  I saw this idea on a few different blogs and decided to try our hands at it (literally!).  They are hand print snowman keepsake tree decorations- we made them for several local family members and I kept a set myself.

A bit messy, but all in good fun and the kids had fun having their hands painted!

 After the hand print paint dried, I used paint pens and a black Sharpie to decorate...

Day 3- Sugar cut out cookies: We made them soft baked this year following this recipe.  I made the dough with the kids in the morning and Josh & I rolled out the refrigerated dough while the younger ones were napping.  J & K helped me decorate!

I used dowels to make the cutouts thick and even

 ready to bake

 ~8 minutes later, all puffed up and soft baked!

 Decorating...

Day 4: Peanut Brittle- I make this every year and this year I want to share this super simple recipe that I wrote down many years ago... Unfortunately I don't have the original source, but here is the recipe that I follow.  It takes about 20mins from start to finish and makes a great gift and if you bring it to a party, people will think that you worked a lot harder on making it! 

Quick and easy Microwave Peanut Brittle:

Ingredients


1 1/2 cups peanuts
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

First, grease a baking sheet and set aside (I stick mine in a warm oven while waiting so that the mixture spreads easier in the end).  Then gather all your ingredients.

 In a glass bowl, combine peanuts, sugar and corn syrup. Cook in microwave for 6 to 7 minutes.

 Mixture should be bubbly and peanuts slightly brown. Stir in butter and vanilla; cook 2 to 3 minutes longer.

Quickly stir in baking soda, just until mixture is foamy. Pour immediately onto greased baking sheet and tilt to let the brittle spread out. Let cool until set. Break into pieces, and store in an airtight container.

After baking all that, I was ready to go out the door with a platter full of goodies!

and then it Snowed and Snowed and Snowed!!

Ironically the cloudy morning that it rained, we read the book "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats... It was on our winter reading list as I had hoped that we would have snow by the middle of Dec!  The boys enjoyed the story but didn't have a recent experience to pull from to really get into the book.  I had no idea what the afternoon would bring.

...Thursday afternoon after our rain play, we all took naps and awoke to a snow covered backyard and big fluffy snowflakes falling hard!  The boys were in awe and we immediately went searching for hats and mittens.  We got out there quickly to play before dark because snow around here does not last.

J had to process another new experience and seemed a bit confused!

 I think he liked it!

 Why is the backyard white?

 Snowball fights!

 K figured out how to eat the snow without getting any parts of his body wet...

 fun.

 fun.

 fun.

 They played until dark and came in for hot chocolate. 

The outdoor clothing aftermath... What do people do that get this kind of weather all the time?!  This was from ~1 hour of play time in one day... What a wet soggy mess!

 Not expecting much more, we were pleasantly suprised to see this, the next morning!

 4-5" of snow...

 Pretty winter wonderland.

 Mike stayed home for the morning and the boys and him built a snow man.

It still never got that cold, it was gone by Saturday and back to the sunny 50-60 degree days.  I wish it stayed around a little longer, but I am happy we got a snow fix!  Today we read "The Snowy Day" again and I think they understood the bliss of a snow covered day better ;).