Christmas 2012

This month, as with most Decembers past, was CRAZY busy.  Even though I sent out Christmas cards early-ish, had our tree up on time, and tried hard to have all of our gifts bought before December 1st(I was NOT so successful on that one, but did try), the month still slipped right by. I am one of those people who start playing Christmas music at Thanksgiving, want Christmas lights up on the house, enjoy the smell of gingerbread and baked goods wafting through the house(and ending up in my tummy!) and I always hope for snow.  Which is why I wish the month would just slow down a bit...so I can enjoy the whole experience of Christmas with my family in real time, not just fast forward.

The fam on Christmas Eve

The boys putting out treats for Santa (we hear Santa likes Egg Nog...aka 'Special Milk')

That being said, we did have a fantastic Christmas season.  I baked a ton.  So much, in fact that I went through pounds of butter! We talked about the Nativity with the boys as much as possible so they would understand it wasn't all about Santa and presents at all.  I had the boys make each other gifts this year too.  Beckett painted up a 'treasure box' for Asher (on the bottom he had me write, "Asher, share this thing-y".).  Asher made a coupon book for Beck, and he has actually been redeeming them!  It's really sweet to hear him say to Asher," Which coupon should I use?" Asher came up with the coupons all by himself and they range from things like making Beckett's bed, and helping him clean up to playing games with him.  Too sweet.  It ended up being a really great thing for them, and for me.  They both love their thoughtful gifts:)


Corey's parents came into town for the holidays and stayed for a couple of weeks to celebrate.  The kids always love it when grandparents come to town! 

On Christmas Eve, we read the accounts of the Nativity in the Bible, watched some Christmas video clips, sang some songs, and ate some good food.  The boys left out cookies and some 'special milk' (aka egg nog, we hear Santa likes that too!), opened up some new jammies, and were off to bed to dream of Santa's sleigh.  We decided to do the traditional New Mexican luminarias on our sidewalk/yard.  Unfortunately, there was too much wind, so we lit them on Christmas Day instead. They were beautiful though, and the boys helped fill bags with sand and put them out with us.

On Christmas morning, I woke up at 6 a.m., excitedly waiting for the boys to come and 'wake us up', but to my amazement, they slept until a staggeringly late 7 a.m.!  We all came downstairs together and took in the Christmas treasures around and under the tree.  It was a wonderful morning, and the kids had lots of fun opening up their presents.  They were both sweet about receiving their gifts, especially Beckett, who is still very excited about everything he opens.  Christmas dinner was at our place, and we served up a very non-traditional, but yummy dinner of fajitas, sides and a fun peppermint cheesecake cake, which, sadly, we were so full, we barely made a dent in it!

Some favorite gifts this year would include:  Asher- loads of Legos, his snap circuit set (so cool!), a kickball, and soccer wii game. Beck- Imaginext space shuttle, giraffe dreamlite (now named Dreamy), and a Twins shirt.

 Asher sporting one of Beck's super-hero get-ups while opening presents, and Beck with a few of his favorite things:)

 

Add caption

What a Merry Christmas it was:)

Such Good News

This past week we found out some really great news.  Our little Beck has had renal reflux since birth (found in utero, actually).  Over the past 3 plus years, he's taken an antibiotic daily(until things started looking better last March), and once a year we took him in for a renal ultrasound, and a vcug...basically a strange way to see if his kidney still has a kink in it, and it is NOT fun.  The only upside to it is that Beckett gets to eat Jello.  I don't try to deprive my children of Jello, we just never really eat it, and because of that the stuff is like magic when he suddenly can't have real food.  We just pull out some 'Jigglers' and ta-da, it's like he's eating cookies for breakfast.  At least that part is fun for him.

We were really hoping this would be his last one, since after the previous 'study' they found that it had lessened from a grade 3 to a grade 1.  There was a chance it was gone but he'd need one more set of tests to be sure.  A week and a half before Thanksgiving we went in for it, and this past week we received the results and were thrilled to hear that YES, in fact it is GONE!  Yippee!  I cannot tell you how grateful we are to hear this.  Beckett's lil' kidney has fixed itself up, we just had to have a little patience and faith. We are so thankful for a healthy little boy with a happy little kidney:)