The Stockings Were Hung

The Christmas excitement all started the morning of December 24th.  We were planning on going out to the farm to spend Christmas with the Puzey's, but first we had a Christmas Eve surprise for the boys.  We follow the tradition of Christmas Eve Pajamas and being able to open one gift before going to bed.  Last year we took the boys to the Build a Bear store and let them build bears.  So this year we decided to go to the Lego store and let the boys make 3 lego men as their Christmas Eve gift.  I also had gift cards for the Build a Bear store so they also got to go and pick out an outfit for their bears.  The boys had so much fun and weren't even upset in the evening when they just got their pajamas.

Christmas PJ's

After our visit to the mall we packed up the truck and headed to Champion.

But before we left we were sure to leave cookies and a note for Santa to let him know where we would be Christmas Eve!

After everyone arrived - us; mom; Dave, Char and their kids Cora, Leah and Blake; Jared, Amber and their kids Emry, Calum and Armin; and Rachel, Jared and Liam we had dinner.  Mom had made her delicious buns and yummy clam chowder soup.  We had a good time laughing and talking and the kids played and got along pretty good. 

Before bed the kids put on a nativity with narration and songs.  Cora being the oldest was in charge, Leah and Ashton were Mary and Joseph with baby Armin as baby Jesus.


Ashton took his role very seriously.

Blake and Bowen were wisemen.

Emry was an angel, and Liam and Calum were the cutest shepherds you've ever seen.

It was very sweet and I hope we make it a tradition.  Little Armin was however not appreciating his role as baby Jesus and was making quite a racket.  Bowen turned to me and whispered "baby Jesus is ruining the play".

Then the kids were off to bed - with no complaint - I kept hearing Ashton telling Bowen "we need to go to sleep so Santa can come".  Oh how I remember how hard it was to fall asleep when you were so excited for Christmas morning.

Christmas morning came early with Ashton waking at 6:00 a.m.  He impatiently waited until the agreed upon waking time of 8:00 a.m. by laying between his dad and I and shoving arms and legs into our sides for 2 hours.  At 8:00 am. we woke up Bowen and headed downstairs to open stockings.

We all got some great presents and we had such a nice Christmas together.  I love my family but we sure missed Dad this year.  I'm grateful we were still able to enjoy the season and each other.  We will all carry on with so many Christmas traditions that Dad started. 

When we arrived home a couple of days later Ashton was anxious to see if Santa had eaten his cookies.  He ran over to the plate and saw the cookies were gone and then jumped onto the couch not noticing something had been left under the tree.  Bowen came into the room and stood silent for a moment and then quietly said "we got a Wii", then a little louder "we got a Wii" - this of course got Ashton's attention and they ran over to the tree to see what Santa had left.

The boys were so excited!!



It's hard to tell Ashton is excited in this picture - it was late - he was really tired.  I know he's excited though, they've been playing it non-stop.

 MERRY CHRISTMAS!