Our Annual Galaxy of Lights Excursion

Our 6th journey through the Christmas Light Display at the botanical gardens was as fun as usual.  The weather was crazy nice, the lights were just as Merry and our sweet little crew of friends continue to grow. 

I am still baffled by how quickly we went from this...

 to this....

While the speed with which these kids are growing up blows me away,
I love seeing them become little people, with friends and ideas all their own.

Christmas 2012

We flew solo this Christmas.

Will's parents usually come for Christmas but due to a surgery conflict they could not join us.  We had a great holiday with our little family and enjoyed having friends over for Christmas dinner.

Before Christmas Eve Service

No luck in getting a serious picture.

Love these guys

Self portrait

Lego building

Sprinkling reindeer food

Santa's delivery

Crashed out boys

So excited

Digging into his stocking

Why yes, more Legos

Snuggles

Clean little kidlets on Christmas

Rare moment of love between Lyla and Muppet

Enjoying their climbing wall from Nana & Gramps

This little dude took Mr. and Mrs. Claus several hours to construct

Galaxy of Lights

 Sunday we ventured out to the Galaxy of Lights for our annual walk through the Christmas lights.  It is a little surreal to watch these kids every year because they seem to grow at warp speed It becomes glaringly apparent when we are walking and remembering the previous year that these years with little guys are moving very very quickly. 

Anyway...once again, the weather was perfect, the children were excited and we enjoyed our little adventure immensely.

We also got to see Santa and actually had two willing boys sit on his lap!

 

Leg of Lamb

My lovingly selected nativity set didn't quite escape the holiday season unscathed, we discovered last night that Mauser (the new puppy) enjoyed a rear leg of the little lamb in the past few weeks.

Nativity

So on a recent visit to the most awesome toy store ever we picked up our first Nativity set. 

I have always wanted a nativity set and have almost bought one many many times.  This set is by Playmobil, is not breakable and has all the important components/characters:

Mary 

Joseph

Baby Jesus

Three Wise Men

A camel

A manger

Two Sheep

A carrot (for said sheep) or Mary and Joseph?

A staff for Joseph

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

APine tree covered with snow.

To date,

Joseph has used his staff to shoot the sheep.

The Wise Men have all flown, thanks to their super-capes.

Baby Jesus has been force fed the carrot.

The camel has played the role of bad guy, big dog and the donkey from Shrek.

Once again, the short people in the house have opened my eyes to all the possible scenarios that could have been played out on the night our savior was born.

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and joy in unexpected places!

2011..and we FINALLY like SANTA!!

Another parenting first here....both boys willingly sat on Santa's lap this year.  While neither one spoke up real loud they did sit on his lap on their own.  They are getting so big..so big.

Christmas 2010

Once again we spent Christmas in Alabama and can I just say how nice it is to wake up in your own home on Christmas morning!  While we do miss our family and friends it is such a relief to not have to travel with these little people.  Willie's parents came in for the holiday and we all had a great time catching up.  The coolest part, we woke up to a snow covered wonderland on Christmas morning.

Nana and the boys playing with their new blocks.

 Kimber trying out big brothers new big boy bike.

 Staying warm during the Christmas Eve stump grinding festivities.

 Observing

 Christmas Eve 2010

 Santa came...

 Willie testing out the tee-pee,                                                             and Kimber too.

Quite impressed with their new garbage truck.

 And tools too.

Snowman building

               A snow angel and...                                                                      some snow covered broccoli.

 Warming up with some Sudoku with Gramps

Christmas Card Scoring System

From SWISTLE, a blogger who never fails to make me smile....

Christmas Card Scoring / Rating System

• Card received: +5
• Card received before December 1st: -1
• Card received after December 25th: -1
• Card is pretty, and looks nice on wall: +3
• Card is glittery: +1
• Card does not contain card, but only letter, so there is nothing to put up on wall: -3
• Card is e-card: -5
  

• Card includes photo or is photo card: +5
• More than one photo: +2 each additional photo
  
• Photo is non-Christmassy so will look good on fridge all year: +1
• Photo is Christmassy so increases holiday feeling of card: +1
  
• Red-eye causes family to appear possessed by evil Christmas spirit: -1
• Photo was taken on beach this past summer in summer clothing, so family looks chilly against winter pattern of card: -1
• Photo includes dogs with glowing eyes who seem poised to eat humans: -1

• Card includes letter: +5
• Letter is informative and interesting: +3
• Letter describes child as "amazing" or "already an avid reader at age 3!": -3 each
• Letter is so braggy and saccharine-cheery, I wonder why I associate with these people: -3
• Letter is so very braggy and saccharine-cheery, it crosses over into comical and becomes fun to read aloud in an unkind tone of voice: +2
• Letter is a sermon disguised as a Christmas letter, and contains pious hopes for our country, for mankind, and for me personally: -5
• Letter mentions details of gross surgery: -1 or +1, depending on entertainment value
• Letter contains thinly-veiled family gossip: +3
• Letter contains information that should have been told earlier: -2

• Card includes check: +5
• Large check: +10
  
• Card includes announcement of pregnancy: +10
• Card from Christmas Card Friends contains surprising news of baby born since last card sent: +10

Santa is busy.....

Don't tell the boys....but Santa told me he is busy making the boys one of these for Christmas.  I am sure they will be thrilled!!