Christmas is here!

We were so excited about Christmas this year with the boys - we actually started our "Elf on the Shelf" tradition this year and Ben & Jack loved looking for the elf (with prompting) each morning - they would scan each place the elf had already been before finding him, which was cute. Next year will be even more fun as I am sure our elf will expand his repertoire of elf-scapades! Haha, well I think that's funny.

Anyway, Christmas Eve was SO much fun and I had been so looking forward to it! We went to our new church - HPUMC - for an afternoon service and even though we were in overflow seating, it was lovely. We even saw President Bush on our way out! Well, some of us did. Others of us (me) passed RIGHT by him on the stairs and didn't realize the opportunity to share Christmas wishes with the president would present itself or slip right through my fingers. Alas; or as the boys would say, "Awww, maaan!"

Afterwards, we (including J's parents, Katie, & Guy) went to dinner at Pappas Bros., which was very festive!

Christmas morning the boys woke up to find their Santa gifts - a couple of tricycles and some blocks were the big hits of the morning. And notice the uber-cute Santa bags we had delivered from the North Pole, via England, as Godmother Beth & Uncle Matt put in a good word for us to have these toy delivery bags each year. We love them and should fit our "three gifts from Santa" perfectly! The boys are so cute at this age - we must have opened presents all day long because they would open one and be ready to play with that, forget about the other presents! Honey and Papa were going to join us Christmas morning but because it was raining and yucky outside, and since we were going over there for dinner anyway, we just packed up after breakfast and headed to Plano. We took their stockings along, since they didn't make it to opening those yet! 

 

When we got to J's parents, we got to relax, we opened gifts, and then it SNOWED! That was fun to play in outside, though the boys weren't really quite sure what to make of it. I love their hesitant expressions! They were ready to go in, and then we had Christmas dinner of course, which was yummy. The boys had a blast passing out gifts to everyone - they think they are so big :) 

Luckily Susie gave me a pair of gloves in my stocking, since I forgot the boys' mittens!

 

Other pictures from the day:

And finally, Ben & Jack learned that Santa Claus says "Ho, Ho, Ho!" and Ben added, "Merry, Christmas!" - I'm fairly certain that Nanny Mercedes taught them this, as I discovered it when they would see the Santa decoration in the dining room and spontaneously say "Ho, Ho, Ho!" I thought it was kind of adorable, especially when Ben started saying "Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas" - which actually got much clearer than this. Love these boys!