Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

I'm excited to report that my efforts to have a Christ-centered Christmas were successfully achieved! 

(My very detailed thoughts about Santa are in this post: It's All About Santa and my ideas of how to make Christmas more Christ-centered are in this post: Solutions for Santa ) 

I'll admit, it was a total bummer that we weren't with any family. But we made the most of it. It was nice to focus completely on our little boys and enjoy a quiet Christmas eve and morning with fresh fallen snow. It was such a joyful Christmas!!

Here is the Baby Jesus cake I made. Tanner was so excited to sing happy birthday to baby Jesus and blow out the candles. He wanted it to be his own birthday, too. I told him- that's one great thing about Baby Jesus' birthday. Everyone gives presents to everyone!

Santa education this year was extremely easy since Tanner thinks that Santa "Clause" is someone with big "claws," sharp teeth and has a big roar. I promise he came up with that on his own! I think it goes without saying that we did not even need to think about visiting Santa this year. Yay! (And I did teach Tanner who Santa really is, but with the truth, of course).

On Christmas Eve, we did steak! Jeremy grilled out in the snow. He did an amazing job; it was so DE-licious!

Christmas Eve dinner- just the four of us!

Dallin got steak, too. He gnawed to his heart's content.

After dinner, we acted out the Nativity. Having a cast of just four people made us really miss being with the Davidson crew.

Tanner was Joseph, but he says "Jofes." And he insisted that "Dada is Jofes, too. There are TWO Jofes-es."

Tanner assigned me to be Mary. Dallin to be Jesus. We built a little stable in the living room. We played for 30+ minutes, finding food for the baby, eating, sleeping, taking care of the donkey, meeting the shepherds, sleeping, getting blankets for the baby, sleeping, making food, etc. It was so fun!!

Playing with all these things made me wish I had the Nativity puppet show that my mom made that I played with every year growing up.

Before going to bed, we told Tanner that "in the morning it will be Christmas Day, baby Jesus's birthday! We have to get Dallin's surprise ready!" We helped Tanner stuff Dallin's stocking with blocks that Tanner chose earlier from the store. We also laid out Tanner's stocking and said "In the nighttime, Dallin is going to put a surprise in here for you! And mommy and daddy will have a special surprise for you, too." Tanner said, "Ohhhh. Okay!" He went to bed like a good boy.

In the morning, we had a beautiful white Christmas! I decided that Christmas eve and day are the only two days out of the year it should be allowed to snow.

We all lazed in our bed for awhile, cuddling and giggling. We had to remind Tanner about the Christmas surprises, and I liked that. It made it more of a true surprise instead of something that he expected. (We'll see how many years that lasts). 
Here's the boys getting ready to go see!

When Tanner saw the kitchen set, he just stared for a minute, then smiled. He said with amazement, "You got this for ME?" That made my heart melt. For Jeremy, it made the 3 confusing hours of putting it together worth it!

Here's play-food to go with it. Tanner spent a large portion of the day working in his "big, little kitchen" making us "pancanks."

When Tanner gave Dallin his surprise, Dallin was so excited. Tanner giggled and giggled watching Dallin play with his gift.

Dallin stuffed Tanner's stocking with these dinosaurs. Tanner was in heaven.

I stuffed Jeremy's stocking with darts and this dartboard to go in his own playroom.

For breakfast, in honor of aunt Judy's breakfast luncheon, I made these California egg's Benedict with avocado, Swiss cheese and tomatoes.

The Christmas breakfast spread.

Tanner was so happy that we made pancakes!

Later in the day we opened up some more presents and just relaxed and played and ate. In the late afternoon, we went to a fondue party with some friends from church.  

Our Christmas was simple, cozy, silly, yummy, spiritual, loving, happy, and because of our two little bundles of love, it was filled with lots of magic. I am so grateful for our Saviour's birth and for the magic and love that His life brings to me and my family.

Christmas Sunday

On Christmas Sunday, we enjoyed a great day at church. Jeremy sang bass in the choir and I directed the choir. I also helped teach a really special lesson with the young women. Our boys looked so cute in their Christmas outfits! I tried to make them match with clothes that I already had. And then Jeremy and I ended up matching them, too, without realizing it! Tanner was not in the mood for taking pictures. (He never seems to do well with family shots). And poor little Dallin fell off the bench twice because he was so excited at all the faces that Leighsa's son was making while taking our pictures. Here's what we got:

Our little girl was still with us, too!

Baby's first Christmas!

Tanner's 3rd Christmas!

We bribed him with a cookie to make him smile in the family shots.

Eventually we got this one below. It's not the greatest as far as angles and lighting, but I think we all look pretty good!! This marks me and Jeremy's 8th Christmas married and our 1st Christmas as a family of FOUR.

More December Days

I think our tree sat for more than a week before we actually decorated it. Tanner didn't break any ornaments this year! It helped that the tree was on carpet this time. 

Tanner was very helpful with the ornaments. He even got to put the star on the top! Dallin was sleeping. We also had Leighsa's daughter with us, so she helped decorate, too.

Ta-da!

So my friend Leighsa had a family emergency to take care of in northern MN. She decided it would be best to leave her daughter here, so she got to come to our house! We kept her until Leighsa was able to come back, which meant we got to have a daughter in the family for 9 days. Also, Leighsa's teenage son stayed with us for most of the time, too. So we were blessed to have a full house of kids. I decided that having older kids is a great idea because they play with the younger kids and help do chores! I also decided once again that schools in general start way too early in the morning (I'm not a morning person). I guess I've been taking for granted how Dallin doesn't wake up until 8:30/9:00 am!

Project time

Story time

Music time

Play Time- Our dolls got used a lot more with our guests being here.

The kids had their school performances while they stayed at our house. So I got to get our little girl all ready for her performance!

Watching both the elementary and high school performances was really fun for me. I thought a lot about my students in CA and about our performances. And I was a little surprised at myself in how much compassion I had for the music teachers. I know exactly how much work it takes to direct a performance!

While the big kids were at school, we kept ourselves busy at home.

"Mama, check out this move!"

Dallin's fingers seem so long to me!

Bloody nose. I think it was from the cold and dry weather. It's pretty brutal here.

Chomping on oranges to sooth the first two teeth coming in!

Our back neighbors gave the boys this sled! The next day, I dragged them all around the back yard. They LOVED it.

We also did a lot of baking with our adopted daughter. 

Drawing of her family

Peanut Butter Rice Cripsies with Chocolate topping

Tanner took this pic

On our way to pick up the kids from school!

And even though I posted this when I talked about the wassail party, I want to post it again. It's my favorite pic of the whole week that we got to have these two amazing kids in our family. It really was a Christmas blessing to be able to take care of them!