Christmas 2013 (long overdue)

I can't believe it's taken me five months to finally post pictures from Christmas. Better late than never. 

Well, this past season we filled our days with a lot of Christmas traditions. Ever since I was a young girl, my parents had given me an ornament for every year until I graduated high school. I began this tradition with my boys since their first Christmas. The boys decorated their very own Christmas tree in their playroom - this is their tree to do as they want. I have learned to let them place the ornaments wherever they wish (even if there ends up being 10 ornaments all bunched together). It is their tree, filled with ornaments they have made or ornaments that were given to them as gifts. As I walked past their tree each night, I couldn't help but smile, especially at the crowded ornaments.  

Funny to see that we were decorating our Christmas tree in shorts and t-shirts.
Oh, to live in the south. 

My heart is full. 

We also did a lot of other Christmas crafts and activities this year. We made glass and salt dough ornaments, mailed Christmas cards to loved ones, and molded Santa's and Rudolph's out of play doh. We watched Christmas movies on a movie projector in our garage (new tradition that the boys loved), we made sugar cookies... lots of sugar cookies, we went on a hayrack ride to see the lights in our neighborhood, we met Santa Claus, we drank hot cocoa and ate delicious snowmen pancakes. Christmas is and always has been my favorite time of year. I love being able to share our holiday traditions with the boys. To be able to live vicariously through them and experience the "magic" one more time is priceless.  

Glass ornaments.

End product.

Yummy.... sugar cookies!!

Bryson's favorite holiday movie this year:
A Merry Monkey Christmas (Curious George).

The boys got to meet Santa!

Candle Lit Christmas Eve Service.

Meet Ellie, our Elf. We started this "Elf on the Shelf" tradition a couple of years ago. I know there are some people out there who aren't big elf fans but this has been one of my most favorite new traditions that we started with our boys. The joy and excitement that filled their faces every morning was absolutely darling. We haven't forgotten to move her yet :) And the boys have NEVER touched her so her magic still exists. She is always missed when she flies back to the north pole on Christmas Eve. 

Christmas Morning - I can't tell you how precious these two were on Christmas morning. Their joy, their excitement, & their faces every time they opened a gift. They woke up to stockings filled and gifts from Santa by the fireplace. Brode woke up first but had to wait an extra hour or so before his little brother woke up (he must have stayed up too late waiting for Rudolph's red nose). 

We made the trip back to Nebraska the day after Christmas this year. We were hoping for snow and on our very last day, it did just that.... the boys were able to play, lick, and quite possibly eat the snow. God is so good... even in the little things.

I'm sure I missed a bunch of exciting stuff that happened over the holiday, but I guess that's what I get for waiting five months before posting. All in all, we had a blessed, merry Christmas season!