Christmas 2016

Merry Christmas!  

Randy and the boys are at the latest Star Wars movie right now so I've got the house and computer all to myself and I'm excited to get caught up so I can stop feeling guilt for not writing.  This Christmas will forever be referred to as the year Randy saved Christmas.  He pretty much did it all, and since Randy doesn't do anything halfway, it meant a lot of late nights, countless trips to the store, and a long, much-needed Christmas-day nap.  This was also the first year we didn't stay up late on Christmas Eve assembling and wrapping gifts.  Everything was done ahead of time which is very unlike us so it will probably never happen again, even if it was a wonderful experience.

Randy's parents drove up from UT for Christmas so it was fun to have family with us for the holiday.  We did all our traditions....nice Christmas dinner, talent show, family night, new {matching} pajamas, and the opening of the brother gifts.  It was great fun and we've been doing it long enough now that everything runs like clock work.

 The one thing Randy didn't do was make dinner.  But he did convince me to make my delicious dinner rolls which I wasn't feeling up to so I told him I'd do it and to count it as a Christmas gift. 

Randy also won Best Husband of the Year for remembering to buy crackers {English party favors that pop open with a crack and inside are paper crowns and a prize. } in honor of Lindsey.  I love that this has become a tradition for our family and honors her memory at the same time and I especially love that Randy makes sure it happens.  It's definitely one of the sweetest things he does for me.  The boys LOVE finding the prize inside so it gets the night started off on the right foot. 

After dinner we moved into the living room for the talents and spiritual part of the night.  Marcus and Parker did some sort of skit that Marcus probably learned at scout camp, Landon played the piano {have I mentioned I started teaching him how to play?  I have.  It's not fun.}, and Marcus and Ethan sang a Journey song which sounded pretty good for an impromptu performance.

 Randy read a book about the symbols of Christmas and as you can see, the boys were not taking the whole thing very seriously yet.  But that's OK.  We've learned to embrace it.

 We read the story of the Nativity in Luke 2 and were reminded once again of the real reason for the season.  We have yet to allow our boys to dress in Nativity costumes for this as we know the result will be pure silliness and giggles so we give each boy a person from the Nativity to place in the stable when they hear it being read and it's worked wonderfully so far.  After reading the story, we each took a moment to talk about our feelings for the Savior and shared some of the things we did during the month of December to be more like Him.  I grew up doing this as a kid and love this tradition.  As a parent, it is one of the few times we have a setting so perfect for discussing tender things such as the Savior and our feelings for him with our children.  The boys know to be prepared to share their thoughts too and it makes my heart happy hearing from them.

Then it was time for the boys to unwrap their pajamas and this year Randy bought everyone matching pajamas.  Every.Single.Person.  The cheesiness of this was overwhelming for me and I just couldn't do it.  I wore my pajama pants and called it good.  Sorry Randy, but I have my limits.  The boys will be mortified by these pictures one day so maybe that's Randy's motivation?

 Next came the exchanging of brothers gifts and I love this part!  The boys are so excited to give the gift and the receiver is always thrilled and is quick to hug their brother which of course melts my heart.  I'm telling you, doing this on Christmas Eve when the boys haven't opened their bigger gifts makes these gifts seem even more special and we all look forward to it.

 Ethan just about knocked Marcus over with his hug of gratitude for a Star Wars Lego set.

 Before we knew it, it was 7am on Christmas morning and time for these blurry-eyed boys to see what Santa brought.  I told them the best Christmas gift for me was seeing their excitement as they see what's under the tree for the first time which is why they aren't allowed out of their beds until we give them the all clear.

 I didn't take a ton of pictures but I did get one of the boys playing on their new ping pong table.  It's not full-size and collapses down like a folding table so we don't have to set it up all the time.  Good thing too because we don't have room for it.  After this picture we moved it to its new temporary spot in our entryway which looks soooo tacky.

Another Christmas highlight was Randy and I gifting each other crepe makers. Two crepe makers to be exact.  Great minds think alike!  I told him the reason I bought him his was so he could make the crepes so I get to return mine.  We will see how that plays out!  I think the best gift this year, and one the boys didn't ask for, was their laser tag gun set.  It came with four guns in a suitcase they quickly dubbed "the package" and they carry it around like its got a bomb inside.  The guns vibrate, light up, and make different shooting noises depending on the type of gun shot you select and the gun shuts off when you run out of life.  It's pretty awesome and watching them run around in the woods, chasing each other was very entertaining.  Marcus said he felt like he was on The Hunger Games {not sure that's not a good thing but oh well}.  It was a fun activity to do after church and the woods were extra beautiful too.

 With the exception of a mini basketball hoop, Marcus's gifts were all clothes this year and he was thrilled so he's officially not a little kid anymore.  Ethan and Landon couldn't understand how Marcus wasn't disappointed by his Christmas gifts.  Later, I had to reassure Marcus that it was okay to feel less excitement at Christmas even if he liked his presents.  I told him it means he's getting older and it's normal.  I think he was relieved to hear that but quickly got excited as he tried on all his new clothes for us.

Then it was off to church where I had to play the organ.  I LOATHE that thing!  I have no idea what I'm doing and half way through the first hymn my knuckle hit a random button that was programmed to sound like the Phantom Of the Opera and suddenly I blew everyone away with the enormous sound.  I couldn't do anything about it because I had to keep playing but I tell you what, all those buttons and stops were lit up like Christmas Day!  How fitting.  I was mortified.

And here are the boys, two days later, proudly displaying their latest Lego sets.  Ethan's Millenial Falcon had over a thousand pieces to it but he built it in record time.  Landon built two big sets with only a little help from me and mostly because I wanted to help him.  I actually really enjoy building Legos.  And I love Parker's little smile as he proudly shows off his non-Lego Millenial Falcon ship.  He LOVES it!  And I love that it's pretty much indestructible since he tends to destroy all Lego sets eventually.  Yep, we haven't grown out of the Star Wars obsession yet and there is no end in sight!