Merry Christmas!

We had a nice, relaxing Christmas this year. It's the first time in around 3 years that we haven't traveled some where, and I have to say it was kind of nice! Robert's mom came into town.

Here she is playing Blackjack with the boys.
(Yes...BLACKJACK. And yes, those are real poker chips.)

(Supposedly it teaches math skills or something.)

On Christmas Eve, we let the boys open a few presents. Grandma gave them each beautiful quilts. They were made by a friend of a friend. They are the same pattern, but different fabrics. They each have jars with bugs, frogs, or lizards in them. They are really beautiful, with lots of detail.

The boys LOVE them!

Then they opened another present: matching pajamas.

Cute boys!

Crazy boys!
(By the way, there are no presents under the tree because a certain 2 year old would have opened them up faster than you can say "Jingle Bells.")

Then we read the Christmas story. Robert tried to explain to the boys what frankincense and myrrh are. He described frankincense as something that made you smell good, to which Trevor replied, "Like deoderant?" He then described myrrh as a balm that makes your skin soft, to which Ethan replied, "Like lip balm?" So, now my children think the wise men brought the baby Jesus gold, deoderant, and chapstick.

Next, we sang some Christmas songs (my favorite part of Christmas!). This year, Trevor learned a lot of Christmas songs on piano, so he accompanied us.

Here he is with Grandma singing along.

Next, we hung up the stockings. (Again, we put this off until Christmas Eve because a certain 2-year old would have pulled them down faster than you can say, "Ho, ho ho!")

The far right one is for Grandma...it has 5 little pockets with varying degrees of naughtiness and niceness listed, with a little candy cane you can place according to your rating.
(The boys rated Grandma "Nice Occasionally." Santa changed it to "Nice.")

We put out cookies for "Mr. C."

Here's Ethan is standing guard...Kevin thinks they are for him.

Next morning, the boys didn't wake us up until around 8 a.m.

One of Trevor's favorite gifts: Legos!

One of Ethan's favorite gifts: a book all about the A380

(Yes...apparently an obsession with airplanes is hereditary)

Kevin just wouldn't let go of his candy from his stocking.

It took some convincing to put it down to open presents.

Even when Kevin finally opened some of his presents, it was at a rate of about 1 per half hour. He was all about playing with whatever he opened. He still had some to open after everyone else was finished. Ethan was convinced it was because Kevin actually had more presents than anyone else. We did an unofficial tally to convince him otherwise.

We had yummy cinnamon rolls and orange rolls for breakfast, followed by my first turkey dinner that I've prepared by myself, ever! It turned out all right, but I was pretty tired that night. Our friends the Deans came over later for dessert (I made a peppermint twist cheesecake...pretty yummy!) and games (Bananagrams, Farkle, and Nerts).

It was a great day! I love Christmas. I hope you all had a great holiday, too! Happy New Year!