Christmas Bliss

Christmastime!   So many great times this month.  I love Christmas and all it offers.  I love the religious heart of it all, the spirit of giving, the time taken to do things with family and friends, the memories made, the smells, the foods, the music, the traditions.  I love it all.  This year is Dawson's first Christmas, and although we kept him away from the tree for the most part, he loved the lights, ornaments and presents...a lot!  Next year will be crazy!

This year we made it out to the River of Lights at the Botanical Gardens.  We all cozied up, drank cocoa and strolled through the luminescent gardens filled with lit up shapes of all kinds, and I mean ALL kinds, not just Christmas-y ones.  Santa was there too, so the boys let him know what they wanted, gladly accepted a candy cane and they humored me as we snapped a picture.  It was a great night, minus the mysterious missing mitten.  We got off the bus and couldn't find that thing anywhere!

Corey had a nice chunk of time off with us all so we went to the Zoo , had some fun in a little snow that fell, decorated the tree and drank cocoa, did our traditional advent box calendar with the boys, put together a 500 piece puzzle together ( a new tradition that I just love!) and most importantly celebrated our Savior's birth together.

Christmas Eve we read the nativity story with the boys and sang some songs, then set out some gingerbread we'd baked up for Santa, opened up new pajamas and sent the boys off to bed.  Christmas day was filled with lots of fun....cinnamon rolls and cocoa for breakfast (and loads of stocking candy the boys kept popping into their mouths), opening gifts early in the morning (although we made Beck wait til 6:30 to wake Asher to go down), a little nap, playing with new toys and spending time together.  It was a wonderful day.  Merry merry Christmas!