Christmas 2014

Merry Christmas ya'll!  

Christmas morning dawned sunny and warmish, a nice change from from dreary, rainy weather we've had.  Being a little stir crazy, and not getting any play outside time because of the weather, we had hoped the boys might have a later start to the morning.  Henry agreed, his big brother did not.  We held Brant off until about 8 or so, woke Henry up with the promise of presents and let the wrapping paper fly! 

Kinda crabby...waking up slow.

Henry LOVES hexbugs.  He plays with his brother's all the time, so Santa brought him his own.

Mickey hand washcloths from Mom and Dad

So Henry took his time opening and playing with his toys.  Brant wanted to open everything, then play.  It was a lesson in patience!   It was a lovely morning, still slow paced, enjoying our coffee and Stollen, then french toast casserole and sausage.  We continued with our Christmas Day tradition of a walk to the park and some time on the playground.

It was a quiet day, but peaceful and a joyful reminder of the true reason for Christmas, Christ's birth. 

Twas the Night before Christmas....and a very, very belated blog post

Almost a year.  That's how long it's been since I've blogged.  I go back and forth between documenting and recording their sweetness, and enjoying the moments WITH them, not from behind the lens.  I'm going to try and balance it, because as Christmas was coming I found myself looking back at the blog from when Brant was Henry's age.  There were so many things that I wrote, insignificant at the time, but now forgotten memories.  I want to have that for Henry.  So while the blog might not be as well written, perfectly aligned, edited photos and all, it will be perfect for our family.  After all, that's why I do it. 

Little Brant said today, Christmas Day, "Mom, isn't it weird how we were in school and all and then all of a sudden it's actually Christmas?!"  So true little man, so true.  Our fall has been a blur...Mommy had a wisdom tooth out (out of commission for 3 days prior to..), Mommy went to Costa Rica on a school trip, we all took an amazingly awesome trip to Disney, Thanskgiving, basketball, Holiday events...wow.  It's suddenly Christmas!

Christmas Eve was a relaxed event around here, we had made cookies for Santa the day before (Daddy had to work the long shift!) The boys loved it, of course, and Grandma came up for some cookie fun. 

Henry began to lose interest and started to sprinkle flour on Brady.  He then progressed to eating the sprinkles and colored sugar.

 The cookie fun eventually led to a warm bath. Henry had eaten so many sprinkles his hands were colored!

 Daddy was off all day on Christmas eve, so we had our Christmas dinner then.  This left us free to play all day on Christmas!  Little Brant wanted to make place cards, so he wrote each of our names in his best cursive.

It's always special to eat off of Great Grandmother Dunny's plates.  

 Little Brant casually commented that Mommy didn't buy them matching jammies this year.  I didn't, because they don't exist in their sizes when I waited too long!  But I didn't forget!  After dinner and baths the boys got to open a present from Mommy and Daddy.

Sporting the new jammies for Christmas eve!

 It's always fun opening the presents from Aunt Carol and Uncle Jim.  Those two hit it right on the money each year!!

Giving it a good shake!

 Also in the box from Mommy and Daddy was the movie How to Train your Dragon 2.  After the obligatory photo in front of the tree, we all settled down to watch.

Sort of.  Henry is still convinced that the ornaments are "ittle toys!"

and Grandma...the Unger is strong with this one!

 Before you know it, that "little old elf so lively and quick" made a stop at our house and it was Christmas morning!