A White Christmas

Creative title, huh?

This year, Christmas came roaring into our lives and was over before we knew it! With Thanksgiving being so late in November, it felt like Christmas Day snuck up on us so quickly.  This year was totally different from last in the kid department. For one, the Christmas tree went from a beautiful tree with ornaments evenly spaced out to looking a little haggard with the ornaments only on the top half, and some underneath as well that a certain little somebody enjoyed taking off.  Also, because of this, we decided to not put gifts under the tree until Christmas Eve once Eli was in bed….a tradition I think we will maintain because it will definitely help the Santa effect! 

Christmas Eve we attended a very packed mass, and Isaac and I camped out in the back since he wanted to be rocked.  It was a pretty sweet moment though to be singing "Silent Night" holding my sweet little boy as he snored thinking thousands of years ago Mary was doing the same thing with baby Jesus. 

for the record I didn't take this during church, this was taken a few days later,
but wanted to use it so you all got the full effect of how seriously cute this kid is when he's asleep

 I definitely got teary eyed and then Eli started to "sing" and those tears quickly turned to laughter. These boys are angels, I swear! (Check back with me in 15 years to see if I'm still saying this!) After mass we headed down to my mom and dad's to have our traditional Christmas Eve meal.  We usually get pretty dressed up and mom puts on a spectacular meal along with party crackers and paper crowns.  I don't think Christmas Eve would be right without seeing all my family wear paper crowns! We had a wonderful time with my side of the family and Seth's folks joined us too, which is so great how well they get along with my family, I love it.  

Isaac gave us a pretty awesome Christmas gift which was sleeping about 9 1/2 hours Christmas Eve night…not even Santa coming down the chimney could've woken up that little guy!  Eli had so much fun opening his gifts, however, we had to plan for it to take about a half hour or more per gift with opening, assembling, and then of course playing.  

Eli must've heard Santa's jingle bells in the
night, because he came downstairs so excited!

Christmas morning with my boys!

My folks and sisters (who drove all the way up from Florida to spend time with us) came up Christmas morning and it was so much fun to be in our Christmas PJ's and relax and enjoy the time together.  Isaac enjoyed it all, mainly just being passed around lap to lap.  Eli got a special gift for his grandpa Stanforth, a toy backhoe.  Dad never got one when he was a little boy, and always wanted one. Mom hinted to me that Dad wanted one, but didn't want to get one for Eli because he wanted the backhoe to stay at HIS house.  It was so cute watching Dad and Eli open it together, and of course Eli immediately began saying "tractor! tractor!" over and over again and danced around at his grandpa's feet.  Heartwarming memories!

Dad's backhoe is going to get a lot of hours in on the days I work!

Later in the day we headed over to Seth's parent's house where Eli was spoiled even more and of course we were too! Mamaw and Papaw White got Eli his very own little basketball hoop and we've been practicing every day…but I think Seth and Papaw Ted have a higher field goal percentage so far than Eli. He also got a little musical set from his Aunt and Uncle and I can't wait for when they have kids so I can get their little toddler a set of cymbals too :)

Slam dunk!

Speaking of spoiling, my stinking husband went above and beyond and got me some amazing gifts even after we said we didn't want to spend a lot on each other and save it for the kids.  My favorite gift was a new tripod for my camera. I'm definitely not a professional photographer, but its my favorite and only real hobby.  I've been wanting one for a while and he had it set up first thing Christmas morning so we could take family pictures. Every year we attempt a family picture with my camera and since I don't have a tripod we usually rely on stacking up all the gift boxes and then end up with a really awkward family picture! Not this year! He is so good to me, but I don't think he realized he was going to have to become one of my models.

My family: Lisa (left with Isaac), Mom and Dad and Michelle, and May (the dog)

With Seth's family: Grant and Brenna, Taylor and Boiler, Seth's grandma Monica, Ted and Vicki with the boys, and even Bristol the pistol made the photo but if obviously distracted by something outside!

I hope all of you had a very blessed Christmas!