Christmas 2011

 Well, New Years has come and gone and I am finally posting Christmas.  There are lots and lots of pictures...  When I get to heaven some of the moments that I want to watch over and over are all of the Christmas mornings that we have had (because I am convinced once we get to heaven we will be equipped with a t.v. and remote where we can watch our lives.)  I love the absolute joy on the faces of our kids (that is reflected I am sure in mine and Josh's) as they see the magic of Christmas morning. 

 Santa brought the boys "hockey stuff" this year.  They play street hockey with the neighbors a lot so they were very excited to get their own hockey sticks and goal (they have been borrowing for a while).

 That Santa sure did a good job this year...

 I just realized that I never posted any of our decorations this year.  I did our tree in aqua and red.  Note the bottom half wasn't decorated so Mckay wouldn't be too tempted.  He did pretty well with it actually.

 Santa even brought a hockey stick for dad and a couple of extras for the friends that come over (they think mom might use one...but I am not so sure about that).

We get up before the boys and turn on Christmas music (the calm kind :) and then light candles and put them all around the house and then let the boys come see the tree and gifts.

They were pretty excited...We gave boys new Christmas pajamas the night before while at my parent's house.  I had forgotten my camera, so we didn't get any pictures of them opening them.

 Lincoln would hug every present that he opened.  Here he has opened a snow beanie...and he really likes it :)  There is nothing better to me than watching my boys express sincere gratitude without being prompted and they did very well this morning.  Santa only brings one thing usually and the rest of the presents are from mom and day.  We had everything from Santa when they were younger and it was really hard because there were no thank yous or anything on Christmas morning because Santa wasn't there to thank.  We changed that and it is much better for Josh and I.

 These are "stacking cups" we ordered from the school.  They are supposed to be so fun...the boys haven't done too much with them yet.

 For Christmas, Josh gave his clients really soft blankets this year and he brought a sample home to show me.  The boys all fell in love with the blanket and added "a really soft blanket" to their Christmas lists.  Cute Josh ordered them each one and had their names embroidered on them.

 They were a huge hit with the boys and they sleep with them every night.  Even McKay is in love with his.

 We always love the special presents that our boys make at school. 

 These are always the best things we open (as we were cleaning up Christmas we found Hunter's present to us that hadn't been opened yet...darn it.  I will have to post it later).

 Josh surprised me with an A.MA.ZING gift.  He showed me a present and said "this is what you are going to be the most excited about".  It was an ipad cover.  As I don't have an ipad I was a little confused.

 Until I opened this.  Biggest shock EVER!  That Josh is sure a cutie and he LOVES surprises (especially giving them).

 McKay wasn't up when we first did presents so after we ate, he got up and unwrapped his presents.

 3-D placemats.  The boys all got them, and I they are pretty fun to look at :)  He opened a few, and then lost interest so we finished opening his a bit later.

 After our traditional breakfast of sausage, breakfast casserole, and Christmas donuts, we got ready to go to church (our church is at 9:00 a.m..  I have to admit I was pretty amazed with the fact that we got up, had Christmas morning, at a big breakfast and got ready for church and were only a tiny bit late.  We thought about opening our presents and things after church, but the boys would have been miserable at church (hence we would have been miserable) and I wanted them to try and get something out of the message being talked about instead of just pining away for the presents at home.  Each of the boys got a Christmas sweater to wear to church (which I didn't get a picture of in our rush to get there).

I love Christmas on Sundays.  I have been singing with the choir getting ready for the Christmas program and there isn't anything that will bring the Christmas spirit faster for me, than singing song about the Savior's birth.  We had a lovely program on the Savior that was just perfect. 

 Later that day we headed for Josh's mom's house.  She always prepares a special meal and we go there to open presents with the Nelson side. 

 Josh was THRILLED to get rollerblades so he can play hockey with the boys (and he has...a lot.)

 Hunter also got rollerblades and has not taken them off very much in the week following Christmas.  Josh let him sleep in them, and he thought that was pretty great.

 Since Josh and I have been married he LOVES to make my presents as difficult and crazy to open as possible.  The first year we were married he vacuum packed a ski coat to about the size of a small book. He is a genius with disguising presents.  He and his mom went in on one of my gifts this year and Josh coached his mother on wrapping my present.

 I opened it up to find cans of food, and a tide box (it smelled very fresh :)

 I opened the tide box to find more cans of food and a paper letting me know that I was getting the boots of my dreams as a combined Christmas/birthday gift.  I couldn't have been happier!  It was a very fun surprise (Josh was good this year with the surprises!)

 I have been planning this gift for my MIL since last summer.  She had a fun grandkids retreat a couple of days in August and she asked me if I would take pictures of all of them.  I showed them to her, but hoped that she had forgotten about them. 

 I refinished a yard sale frame, got some mat board and Josh and I cut out the mat and then put it all together.

I really liked how it turned out (this is the only picture I took of it) and I am going to take new pictures and change them out for her each year for her. 

It was such a lovely Christmas this year and I have enjoyed every second of being close to my little family as well as our extended families.  I always have a hard time getting back to "real life" after being so spoiled with enjoying each other and just being together.